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September 1, 2016
Osgoode Clubs Fair
Visit IP Osgoode’s table at this year’s Osgoode Hall Law School Clubs Fair to learn more about our programs and activities.
September 13-14, 2016
ICT Seminar 2016
In New York City. Co-organized by the EPO and the Intellectual Property Owners Association. Visit the EPO event website for details.
September 14, 2016
Formalities of Filing and Prosecuting Patents before CIPO and the USPTO
September 28-30, 2016
Intellectual Property Institute of Canada Annual Meeting
October 3-4, 2016
International IP Law Association Annual Meeting
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| September 5, 2016
NOMINATION DEADLINE
If you enjoy reading the IPilogue and IP Osgoode’s website is your go to place for IP related news and commentary, then please nominate us for Best Legal Blog. Visit the The Expert Institute’s website for the nomination form, as well as a full rundown of the competition’s rules and requirements. September 23, 2016
APPLICATION DEADLINE
IP Osgoode Call for Applications
A number of exciting volunteer opportunities with IP Osgoode, see here for more information. Call for Papers
LAWS: Special Issue “Intellectual Property Law in the New Technological Age: Rising to the Challenge of Change?”. Prof. Carys is the guest editor for this special issue. Visit LAWs website for details.
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| The Global Innovation Index 2016 was released on August 15, 2016. Switzerland, Sweden, UK, U.S., Finland and Singapore lead the 2016 rankings of the world’s most innovative economies; China joins the top 25.
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| The IPIGRAM (23 August 2016)
Feature Posts
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| A Look Back on the Development of Software IP Law
Aviv Gaon on Mr. David L. Hayes’ opening session presentation at the 20th Annual BCLT/BTLJ Symposium, Berkeley, California
Setting the Stage for the Future Last April, I had the pleasure of participating in the 20th annual Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and Berkeley Technology Law Journal Symposium. The symposium was focused on the past, present, and future of software intellectual property (“IP”) from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court decision in Alice Corp. (2014) and the denial of Google’s petition for certiorari in the Oracle case.[1] The symposium also generated remarkable discussions that called attention to contemporary IP technology industry dilemmas. In a way, the future development of IP law (as the Cheshire Cat states in Alice in Wonderland) ‘depends a good deal on where [we] want to get to.’
Aviv Gaon is a Ph.D. candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. His research explores whether AI creations can have a claim to copyright protection. The author is grateful to Paul Blizzard, JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and a Professional Engineer, for helpful comments and suggestions for this article.
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Stop Gaming the System, Gamers: Twitch Sues Over Fake Viewer Bots
As the New Yorker caption goes, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Update that for 2016: on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a bot. Twitch, a video streaming platform that primarily broadcasts people playing video games, has filed a lawsuit in US District Court against those who sell bot software and services that create artificial viewers for Twitch channels.[1]
Any software program that performs repetitive tasks may be called a bot. Many bots are useful or benign, but there are also harmful versions, including those that generate fake traffic to websites and fake clicks on advertisements. For companies that rely on viewer numbers to sell advertisement space, assess popularity of content, and pay content producers, fake traffic poses a significant problem.
Jacquilynne Schlesier is an IPilogue Editor and a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.
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| | | Fashionable Rip-Offs: Independent Artists Accuse Fashion Giant Zara of Copying Their Work
August 15, 2016 by Sebastian Beck-Watt
A lot of fashion seems to look the same; such is the nature of trends and functionality. Sometimes the similarities go much further. Fashion behemoth Zara (among others) is no stranger to accusations it copied other designers’ styles. The company is in that spotlight again: this time thanks to assertions that it blatantly ripped off several independent artists’ designs, without any acknowledgement of their work.
The case that has gotten the most publicity is that of Los Angeles-based illustrator Tuesday Bassen, though others have come forward citing similar suspicions of copying, including Stephanie Drabik of Toronto and Adam J. Kurtz of New York. Kurtz created shoparttheft.com to consolidate the comparisons of the artists’ work and Zara’s alleged copies. His site shows the artist’s designs and the Zara version, much as Bassen did in an Instagram post.
According to Bassen’s Instagram account, having been alerted to the similarities between her pieces and Zara’s, Bassen reached out to Zara’s parent company Inditex to seek compensation for the use of her designs. The retailer denied that there had been any copying and stated that her worked lacked the distinctiveness sufficient to be associated with her, noting that their websites’ traffic was very large and that Bassen was an independent artist who few would recognize. As Bassen told New York Magazine, she is taking legal action against Zara, and is willing to go to trial if necessary. Nevertheless, she acknowledges that for an independent artist to take on a retailer of that size, the costs alone can be prohibitive, regardless of the legal merit of the case.
Sebastian Beck-Watt is the IPilogue’s Content Editor and a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School.
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RECENT POSTS IP Osgoode Call for Aplications
August 22, 2016 by IP Osgoode
We are pleased to announce a call for applications for a number of exciting opportunities with IP Osgoode including IPilogue Editors and Innovation Clinic Fellows. See below for more information.
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