Intellectual Property
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January 28, 2026
AI at the helm of legal evolution
In the Dec. 17, 2025, issue of the Harvard Business Review, authors Julian De Freitas, Gideon Nave and Stefano Puntoni write that “the rise of generative AI is reshaping not just how we work, but how we think. In our experience, many leaders focus on productivity in generative AI deployment. Generative AI will indeed make many tasks easier and quicker to perform, increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. But we think that one of the biggest promises of this technology lies elsewhere: in unlocking new forms of human creativity that can drive innovation and growth.”
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January 27, 2026
Aird & Berlis adds 9 new partners
Nine people have become partners at Aird & Berlis. According to a statement from the firm, they are:
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January 26, 2026
Full variety protection for plants: Drones, DNA and the Court of Bari’s landmark decision
While the digital world grapples with AI-generated imagery, a parallel revolution in intellectual property enforcement is taking place in the physical fields of Italy. A recent, groundbreaking decision by the Court of Bari has set a transformative precedent for Plant Variety Protection (PVP).
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January 23, 2026
OBA civil litigation award recipients encourage mentorship in the profession
The importance of mentorship and elevating young lawyers was a focal point of the Ontario Bar Association’s (OBA) Civil Dinner, which celebrates excellence in the bar. Both recipients of the OBA awards emphasized the vital position role models play in the profession.
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January 23, 2026
Moral, legal imperatives affecting restitution of looted art
As someone involved in the field of art restitution, I often marvel at the different types of responses that we receive once we advise someone that the artwork in their possession was looted during the Holocaust and must now be returned to its rightful owners. Possessors who find themselves in this predicament range from private individuals to corporations and foundations, but most institutional possessors are clearly museums, which range from small regional ones in Western and Eastern Europe to the most prominent ones in Europe and the United States.
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January 22, 2026
Cassels adds 11 new partners
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP has announced that 11 lawyers have been admitted into its partnership for 2026.
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January 22, 2026
John McKeown joins Loopstra Nixon as partner
John McKeown has joined Loopstra Nixon LLP as a partner with the intellectual property practice group.
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January 20, 2026
Alberta regulator warns investors of AI-driven scams, private chat frauds in 2026
The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) is warning the province’s investors about the top three scams and misleading tactics to be wary of in 2026, and how they can protect themselves.
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January 20, 2026
The new copyright, AI and pictures: Article 70 and the Italian path to the EU AI Act
The rapid ascent of generative AI has turned the act of “looking” into a legal battlefield. For an AI model to generate a picture, it must first “digest” millions of existing ones. In response to this technical reality, the Italian parliament’s fall 2025 reform introduced Article 70-septies into the Italian Copyright Law (ICL). This provision represents the “Italian path” toward harmonizing national intellectual property law with the landmark European Union AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689).
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January 19, 2026
Federal Court clarifies leave requirement for new evidence in trademark appeals
The appellant appeals from a decision of the Trademarks Opposition Board, refusing its application for registration of the trademark FILTER DESIGN. The FILTER DESIGN trademark consists of the “positioning of a sign” in the form of a pattern of diamond-shaped apertures on the surface of certain air filters. The board refused the application on grounds that the diamond-shaped apertures were dictated primarily by a utilitarian function, and the trademark was unregistrable pursuant to subsection 12(2) of the Trademarks Act (Products Unlimited, Inc. v. Five Seasons Comfort Limited, 2026 FC 48).