crown copyright Archives

When copyright in a work transfers to the Crown: Keatley v Teranet

When does copyright transfer to the Crown under the Copyright Act? The Supreme Court clarified this in a landmark ruling released earlier today in Keatley Surveying Ltd. v. Teranet Inc., 2019 SCC 43, authoritatively interpreting Section 12 of the Act.

The Court did so in delivering two sets of reasons, the majority written by Justice Abella (Moldaver, Karakatsanis and Martin JJ. concurring) and by Justices Côté and Brown JJ. (Wagner C.J. concurring). All seven Judges agreed that the decision of the Court of Appeal (2017 ONCA 748) which sided with Teranet should be affirmed.…

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Crown bound by Copyright Act: Manitoba v Access Copyright

The Federal Court of Appeal ruled this week that the Crown is bound by the Copyright Act. In Manitoba v. Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright), 2013 FCA 91 the Court made it clear that the structure of the Act, its legislative history and evolution all lead to this conclusion:

Having carefully examined the wording of section 12 in its overall context, including the structure of the Act, its legislative history and evolution, and other provisions, such as section 89, I agree with the Board that the words “[w]ithout prejudice to any right or privilege of the Crown” set out in section 12 are intended to refer to and preserve the Crown’s rights and privileges of the same general nature as copyright that may not fall within the meaning of the rest of this provision.

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Crown copyright and translations, Keatley Surveying v Teranet

On Friday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a motion for certification of a proposed class by surveyors alleging infringement of copyright. The suit commenced by Keatley Surveying Ltd claims that Teranet Inc, the company that manages Ontario’s electronic land registry system for the Ontario Government, infringes copyright by making and distributing plans of survey in the course of those operations. In giving reasons for dismissing the motion, the court in the Keatley Surveying LTD v Teranet Inc 2102 ONSC 7120 case made a number of important statements concerning the claims for copyright infringement.*…

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