Intellectual Property
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February 27, 2025
Field Law welcomes five partners, two counsel
Lee Carter, Carolyn Paterson, Pat Robinson and Matt Vernon, based in Calgary, and Paul Kolida, in Edmonton, have been promoted to the position of partners while Don Blackett and Karen Wiwchar named counsel at Field Law., according to an announcement on the firm’s website.
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February 26, 2025
Higher-cost medicines drove 14.1 per cent spike in patented drug prices: Report
The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board has published its latest report, finding that “drug costs jumped by 14.1 per cent in 2023, rebounding from three years of moderate increases of four to five per cent during the pandemic.”
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February 26, 2025
Ontario ruling shows litigants need to be more rigorous in how evidence is called at trial: lawyer
Ontario’s top court has ruled against a software company that claimed a marketing firm had breached a distribution agreement by copying the features and functionality of a program it had designed.
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February 26, 2025
SCC halts use of its ‘X’ account ‘for now,’ citing ‘strategic priorities and resource allocation’
In a move that has sparked controversy in Canada and beyond, the Supreme Court of Canada tells Law360 Canada that “for now” it will no longer use its official account on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, a high-profile billionaire associate of U.S. President Donald Trump.
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February 26, 2025
Appointments at Smart & Biggar offices in Ottawa, Toronto
Trademark agent Jessica Rustige has joined the Ottawa office of Smart & Biggar and Nicole Laberge is a new associate in the Toronto office.
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February 26, 2025
Women & 2SLGBTQI+ applicants came out ahead as ‘highly recommended’ for federal benches in 2023-2024
Asserting his new administration is “ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity,” U.S. President Donald Trump recently issued controversial executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion policies and hiring at the federal level in America. But in Canada, the most recent demographic statistics on federal judicial appointments and the professional competence and character assessments made by the Trudeau government’s non-partisan judicial advisory committees (JACs) indicate that diversity has gone hand in hand with “merit.”
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February 25, 2025
Why single out DeepSeek? A global battle for supremacy and privacy, part three | Hodine Williams
In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence (AI), the race for dominance is no longer just about technological innovation. It’s about geopolitics, ethics and legal frameworks.
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February 25, 2025
Better than a sea cruise
Sea Tow Services International, Inc. was incorporated in the State of New York in 1983. It uses a pre-paid membership model to deliver on-water services to recreational boaters, including towing, fuel delivery and repairs, as well as related membership services. It owns Canadian registrations for the word SEA TOW and a design version of the mark (together the Sea Tow Marks). It had filed previous applications for the same marks on Dec. 20, 2002, but the applications although allowed were abandoned on Sept. 20, 2010 (Sea Tow Services International, Inc. v. C-Tow Marine Assistance Ltd. 2025 FC 27 and costs at 2025 FC 355).
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February 24, 2025
Protection against ‘look alike’ packaging
Thatchers Cider Company Limited is the largest family-run independent cider producer in the United Kingdom (Thatchers Cider Company Ltd v Aldi Stores Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 5).
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February 24, 2025
High bar for use of biometric systems maintained by Quebec privacy regulator
Canada’s largest printer was ordered to cease using facial recognition technology to monitor access to its facilities and to destroy all biometric information it previously collected by Quebec’s privacy watchdog in a decision that serves as a stark reminder that there is a high legal threshold for using biometric systems in the province, according to data and privacy experts.