dan glover Archives

Homeaway.com Decision Threatens to Re-write Trade-mark Law in Canada (But Is it for the Better?)

In a case that could have major ramifications for trade-marks law in Canada, Justice Hughes of the Federal Court has concluded that, when a trade-mark appears on a computer screen website in Canada, regardless where the information may have originated from or be stored, constitutes for Trade-Marks Act purposes, use and advertising in Canada.

This strong conclusion comes from Homeaway.com, Inc. v. Martin Hrdlicka, 2012 FC 1467, a decision released December 12, 2012. In this case, the Applicant sought to expunge a trade-mark registered in 2010 by the Respondent Hrdlicka.…

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Misleading Parliament? Really?

Early this week, I opened a lengthy response in Howard Knopf’s blog to my recent post in this blog. Never one to mince his words, Mr. Knopf suggests with sound and fury that I have sought to “mislead Parliament” by posting on the issue of the educational fair dealing provision. Although the House of Commons Committee on Copyright has completed its clause-by-clause review of Bill C-11 without touching this provision, there are certain statements in Mr. Knopf’s blog that need to be addressed.…

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Renewed Attacks on the “Effect on the Market” Factor

Beware of misinformation masquerading as the correction of misinformation, a concept George Orwell labelled as “doublethink”. Michael Geist and Howard Knopf are engaged in it again in their blog articles “Bill C-11 Extremism Continues: The Attack on Fair Dealing” and “The Effect on the Market Factor in Fair Dealing/Fair Use Law – What IS the law?” In their crusade to open Canadian copyright law so wide that a convoy of army trucks filled with textbooks and DVDs could drive through it, they are suggesting that Parliament not clarify that “the effect of the dealing on the market for the original work” is the pre-eminent factor in the fair dealing test.…

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