Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual property rights are rights in things that you create with your mind. Most property rights protect physical things: if you buy a book, you own it as a physical object. But the book as a literary work is separate from the physical object, and the author needs to have some way to protect his or her rights in that literary work. That is why intellectual property rights were created: so people can protect, and profit from, the creations of their intellect and imagination.

This discussion will not focus on royalties received from intellectual property, presumably these can be seized by garnishment. The discussion will focus on the seizure of the intellectual property itself.

Copyright in Canada is protected by the Copyright Act ( R.S., 1985, c. C-42 ). Section 3 of the Copyright Act grants the owner of the copyright the sole right to reproduce copyrighted works. A copyright owner can give permission to reproduce the work. Such permission is, in legal jargon, called a “copyright licence”.

Moral Rights (Sometimes called Author’s Rights) are rights granted exclusively to authors of works under the Copyright Act ( R.S., 1985, c. C-42 ). Moral Rights are distinguished from the copyrights that belong to copyright owners (who may or may not be the author of the work). Section 14.1 of the Copyright Act defines moral rights as follows:

Copyright is a legal right granted by the Canadian Copyright Act which gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to do certain things with a copyright protected work, such as making copies of the work, or giving permission to others to make copies. The rights granted to a copyright holder by Section 3 of the Copyright Act are as follows:

Toronto Copyright Lawyer discusses who own copyright of works created at the workplace during the course of employment.

Most people who listen to urban styles of music, like rap, hip hop and dance, know that the beats they hear on a recording have been taken from somewhere else. The increasing affordability of recording technology in today’s commonplace home studio makes the use of other people’s music more and more widespread. Music sampling is roughly defined as lifting a piece of recorded music (a “sample”) from an existing recording and using it in a new recording. Often, a few bars containing a drum beat will be repeated in “looped” sequence to form the backbeat of the new recording. At other times, the sample may be of vocals, other instruments, or even a nanosecond of background noise. The sample may then be manipulated in different ways and combined with other sounds and sound effects to make a new creation. What is common to all of these incidents is the use of someone else’s recording to produce a new one.

Toronto internet lawyer Gil Zvulony examines the various rights in a photograph, including, copyrights, moral rights, publicity rights and privacy rights.

Toronto Intellectual Property Lawyers explain various IP laws and rights in Canada using Coca-Cola as an example.

The concept of copyright protection is based on the notion that people who create creative works deserve protection for their expression, and need an incentive to keep creating. The theory is that creators create in order to get financial payback for creating, and also to be identified with the work in question. Authors typically want to control the use of their work and place conditions on the use of the work.

Bill C-32, also known as the Copyright Modernization Act, are proposed amendments to the Canada’s Copyright Act. Many consider these changes long overdue. The last time that the Copyright Act was amended was in 1997. Since that time, we have seen the advent of technological powerhouses such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, YouTube and Google among countless others. Just as these entities have reshaped the way we interact with technology and share information, regulatory guidelines that address these shifts are also essential. Bill C-32 attempts to address these technological trends and the new challenges that they present.

Toronto Copyright lawyer discusses the Research and Private Study Defence.

Toronto Copyright Lawyer discusses the Fair Dealing exceptions in Canadian Copyright Law and how they differ from Fair Use in US Copyright Law.

by Gil Zvulony, Toronto Copyright Lawyer The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau has embarked on a slick public relations campaign to discourage piracy of movies on the internet. (See video below). I doubt this will change people’s behaviour, but it is an interesting attempt. The counter argument is that, in some cases, piracy may [...]

Toronto Copyright Lawyers examine Facebook’s legal contracts with their users and its implications on Facebook’s use of user content.

by Shaya Silber, Toronto Lawyer New products are created every day. Some products have distinct design features that may have legal protection from others copying the design.  This type of intellectual property  is called “industrial design”. Industrial design is covered by a unique set of intellectual property rules. According to the Industrial Design Act, industrial [...]

By Shaya Silber, Toronto Copyright Lawyer Copyright law does not protect ideas (patent law does protect ideas, but that’s another area of intellectual property law and has its own requirements). Copyright law protects the expression of ideas. The expression of the idea must be in a fixed form (i.e. it must have some permanency). For [...]

by Shaya Silber, Toronto Internet and Copyright Lawyer The role of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in facilitating copyright infringement has been a controversial topic since the beginnings of the world wide web.  The Canadian government is expected to amend the Copyright Act to address this issue. C-32 (the proposed amendments to the Copyright Act) contains provisions that are [...]