Intellectual Property
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May 17, 2024
Ottawa announces construction of new federal courthouse complex in Montreal
The federal government has officially announced the construction of a new federal courthouse complex in the heart of Old Montreal.
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May 17, 2024
Artificial intelligence, legal profession, irrefutable function of reason | Natalia Bialkowska
To paraphrase Einstein, mankind invented artificial intelligence, but no mouse would ever construct a mousetrap for its own intellect. Admittedly limited in the use of its own potential, human brains offer a unique function of reason, something accepted in the ever-evolving world of philosophy since the first draft of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
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May 16, 2024
Canada sanctions ‘extremist Israeli settlers’ for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank
Ottawa has for the first time sanctioned “extremist Israeli settlers” with dealings and entry bans for “the grave breach of international peace and security posed by their violent and destabilizing actions against Palestinian civilians and their property in the West Bank.”
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May 16, 2024
Artificial Intelligence Act, the EU, habeas corpus: A difficult balance
A few months ago, the EU Parliament approved the first draft of the EU regulation on AI, the so-called AI Act. At this very moment, the text is under the rectification process, i.e. the procedure set by the EU founding treaties and handled by the staff of the EU commission in order to check the consistency of the act to be promulgated with the existing EU legal framework. Since the EU general elections are about to come, it is very unlikely that the final text of the EU AI Act will be approved and published by the end of the year.
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May 15, 2024
130-year-old Kingston firm welcomes new associate
After graduating from Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law and articling in Nova Scotia, Sean Davidson is returning to his hometown of Kingston, Ont., to join Cunningham Swan Carty Little & Bonham LLP as an associate on the firm’s general litigation team.
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May 13, 2024
Alberta needs legislation to confirm power of fiduciaries extend to digital assets: law institute
When a person dies or becomes incapacitated, their money and property often fall under the management of a third-party fiduciary — and the law around that is long-standing and largely settled. But an Alberta-based legal institute is saying the time has come for the provincial government to change its rules on fiduciaries in order to deal with assets in the digital arena.
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May 09, 2024
Hope springs eternal
It may not be a prudent course of action to institute an opposition that exposes the opponent’s problems to scrutiny (D.M.C. SRL v. Giusti 2024 FC 605).
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May 08, 2024
Navigating international trademark registrations and symbol usage
As companies extend their reach globally, safeguarding intellectual property assumes heightened importance. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) provides a streamlined avenue for trademark registrations through the Madrid Protocol (an international agreement), commonly recognized as the “international trademark registration system.”
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May 07, 2024
Sweeping national security bill would boost state investigative powers; expand & create crimes, AMPs
The federal government has introduced a sweeping national security bill that would create a publicly accessible “foreign influence transparency” registry; expand the warrant, production and disclosure powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency (CSIS); affect criminal accused or judicial review applicants seeking access to relevant “information related to international relations, national defence or national security”; expand the current “sabotage” offence; and create new “foreign interference” offences, along with administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) of up to $5 million and five years in prison, including for knowingly obstructing the operations of the office of a proposed new “Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner.”
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April 30, 2024
Ottawa unveils first 2024 budget bill, but doesn’t include boost to capital gains inclusion rate
The minority Liberal government says it hopes to expedite into law a newly proposed 660-page omnibus budget bill, which would enact many measures announced in this month’s federal budget, but not the government’s controversial proposal to tax capital gains at a higher rate.