Intellectual Property
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November 12, 2025
Tilly Norwood: As AI actor takes the stage, Hollywood A-list erupts, part two
It shouldn’t be a surprise that a coded thespian in the form of Tilly Norwood has emerged. In July 2023, SAG-AFTRA went on strike for 118 days, two months after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) walked out.
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November 12, 2025
SCC denies requests by AGs & others to make in-person intervener arguments in historic case
The Supreme Court of Canada is denying recent requests from six intervener attorneys general — as well as counsel for The Advocates’ Society and dozens of other intervener groups — to allow them to make their arguments in person in the upcoming historic Bill 21 appeal, Law360 Canada has learned.
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November 12, 2025
Tilly Norwood: As AI actor takes the stage, Hollywood A-list erupts
She wasn’t discovered at a soda shop or spotted by a casting director on a cigarette break, but Tinseltown newcomer Tilly Norwood can squeeze out a tear on cue, deliver a perfect close-up, and doesn’t demand perfect lighting. Agents are said to be in a conga line to sign her. But, unless the Oscar judges have turned into tech billionaires, nobody’s polishing a tiny golden man for Tilly. Yet.
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November 12, 2025
Alberta Court of Appeal upholds pastor’s library disturbance conviction
As expected at most libraries, the Seton branch of the Calgary Public Library permits activity and conversation at a speaking volume. There are designated quiet areas and rooms reserved for programming.
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November 11, 2025
The limits of biometric surveillance
A recent decision by Quebec’s privacy regulator highlights the risks that organizations face when implementing biometric surveillance systems. In 2024, Metro Inc., a Canadian retailer, announced the launch of a biometric surveillance system in some of its Quebec stores. Metro planned to build a database of facial scans of the people visiting its stores based on the footage captured by Metro’s in-store security cameras. Metro hoped to use this database to identify shoplifters to protect itself from theft.
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November 11, 2025
New trial ordered in P.E.I. adjoining property dispute
A well-known line from Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall says, “Good fences make good neighbours.” Sometimes, building a fence or wall is an overly simple solution. When neighbours take each other to court and accusations of criminal behaviour are made, even the trial can become unpleasant. It was this sort of feud that led to the Prince Edward Island Court of Appeal case R. v. Moore, 2025 PECA 6.
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November 10, 2025
Judicial vacancies hit 5%, threatening more trial delays and backlogs
Ottawa is lagging again in filling the country’s federal benches, hitting a five per cent vacancy rate on Nov. 1, 2025 — mostly in the critical trial courts of Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, which are constitutionally obliged to conduct trials within a reasonable time or face the prospect of staying criminal cases.
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November 10, 2025
The Guardians case: A cautionary tale in seeking interlocutory relief
When two of Canada’s largest providers of inpatient and outpatient mental health and addiction services clashed over the use of the term “GUARDIANS,” the plaintiffs sought an interlocutory injunction from the Federal Court. This decision highlights the formidable legal hurdles applicants face (Schlegel Health Care Inc. v. Edgewood Health Network Inc., 2025 FC 1639).
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November 07, 2025
Cultural loss cited in Churchill portrait theft sentence appeal
It was the Canadian equivalent of a break-in at the Louvre. It involved a photograph taken in 1941 during Winston Churchill’s visit to Ottawa, where then-prime minister Mackenzie King invited Yousuf Karsh to photograph the U.K. leader.
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November 07, 2025
Can celebrities lose the right to their voice?
Back in May 2024, actress Scarlett Johansson was embroiled in a legal dispute with OpenAI when the company released a voice for its ChatGPT assistant, “Sky,” which sounded strangely similar to her own. Johansson had previously declined an offer to voice the AI, and this alleged mimicry was done without her permission. OpenAI has since removed the “Sky” voice and paused its release, while the issues remain in dispute.