The Federal Court of Canada awarded significant damages in a , a suit for trade-mark infringement on August 18, 2011. The trade-mark in question was “The Queen of Tarts,” owned by Stephanie Anne Pick of Toronto, and the decision came as a default judgment after the Defendant failed to submit a Statement of Defence within the prescribed time.

The case is notable since the court awarded the Plaintiff $10,000 in damages plus costs for trade-mark infringement and the tort of passing off in violation of and of the . Also intriguing is the apparent lack of reasoning behind the quantum of damages awarded. This lack of specificity makes it difficult to assess whether a just result was reached given the high award and one-sided nature of the proceedings.

Ms Pick adopted “The Queen of Tarts” trade-mark on approximately February 14, 1999 and later registered the mark on March 31, 2005 with the Canadian Trade-marks Office for use in association with wholesale and retail store services specializing in baked goods. According to Ms Pick’s Affidavit, she used the trademark extensively throughout Canada in advertising, , product packaging, and at her retail store location in Toronto. As such, the court found that such use of “The Queen of Tarts” trade-mark resulted in the mark being well known throughout Canada for goods and services offered by Ms Pick.

Ms Pick initiated the action in November 2010 after discovering the Defendant operated a stall at the Farmer’s Market in downtown Edmonton, Alberta and had also opened a retail store under the name “Queen of Tarts.” In light of this, the court found the Defendant’s mark to be confusingly similar with “The Queen of Tarts” according to of the Trade-marks Act, and found infringement of the mark according to and passing off under .

The court found the Defendant personally responsible for damages since, as director, she had authorized or ordered the infringement and/or passing off of the mark by either failing to conduct a proper preliminary search, or did conduct a proper search but chose to ignore the results of said search. The Court awarded $10,000 in damages as compensation for lost sales and damage to the Plaintiff's reputation and goodwill.

Throughout the analysis, the only mention by the court as to any method of calculation other than judicial discretion, was a reference to conventional awards regarding counterfeit infringement in default judgments. With no baseline to base an opinion on, it is hard to consider the fairness of this outcome given its subjective nature.

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The (CRTC), an independent public authority that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada, recently released a detailing the present and estimated future state of the communications industry in Canada. The report offers several illuminating and surprising insights into the Canadian communications landscape and paints Canadians as leaders in the adoption of cutting edge digital technologies.

Titled , the report contains a thorough review of independent research and perspectives from a wide variety of CRTC stakeholders. was published by the CRTC in February 2010.

The report highlights a number of important factors and trends among Canadians. Interestingly, the report portrays Canadians as avid adopters of digital technologies, projecting traffic over Canadian networks to quadruple from 2009 to 2014, in contrast to global traffic which is projected to triple by 2015 according to . Additionally, , Canadians spend more time online than any other nation and are nearly twice the worldwide average of 23.1 hours online per month. Notably, Canadian television viewing trends have not been significantly affected by time spent on the Internet according to the .

The evolving digital environment is significantly altering Canadians’ approach to consuming content, with convenience and flexibility being driving motivators, particularly behind the adoption of mobile devices. Between 2010 and 2014, the number of wireless subscribers is to increase to nearly 30 million from 25.8 million, half of which will own smartphones. Furthermore, Canadian mobile Internet subscriptions are to spike from 5.5 million in 2011 to 14 million in 2015.

However, the surge in bandwidth intensive mobile device services has put the potential for a spectrum shortage within regulators sights, not only within Canada, but worldwide. The results of such a shortage would be poor quality and a lack of reliability for users, with networks needing to implement traffic management practices to deal with such over-demand. In turn, wireless data prices would likely increase. The report calls for carriers to pay attention to their current and make appropriate investments based on future projections. Also related to spectrum shortages is the discovery that a small portion of users account for the a disproportionately high consumption of bandwidth. For example, found that 1% of North American upstream users are responsible for over 75% of downstream traffic. In the CRTC report, Cisco was also cited as finding the trend also applied to mobile data subscribers, with the top 10% generating 60% of mobile data traffic.

Another significant hurdle to the industry raised by the report was the support of original Canadian content. The Canadian requires that the Canadian broadcasting system maintain and enhance national identity and cultural sovereignty. With the globalized nature of the Internet, online digital content can originate from many sources and the report notes that enforcing Canadian content requirements is difficult since it is nearly impossible to regulate access to non-Canadian content. As a result, support for Canadian content may be threatened by the continued adoption of digital media by Canadians.

The CRTC’s report provides a detailed and valuable glimpse into the state of the Canadian communications industry. While many findings are hardly surprising, the report is full of enlightening statistics and raises important alarm bells on several key issues.

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Marvel Worldwide Inc. won its case to retain the copyrights to comic characters against the estate of legendary comic creator . The suit was in response to in order to reassert their claim to the creations.

Kirby’s estate filed the notices with Marvel and its licensees shortly after Marvel was acquired by Walt Disney Co. for 4 billion dollars in 2009. The 45 characters in question had been created between and included many Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and the Incredible Hulk. Marvel countered with a lawsuit claiming that Kirby’s creations should be considered “works for hire” and thus free from the termination claim.

US District Judge Colleen McMahon citing the lack of evidence presented by the Kirby Estate in rebutting the strong “work for hire” presumption under the 1909 Copyright Act. that the work was created at the expense and instance of Marvel as well as a written agreement signed by Kirby in 1972 stating he was not entitled to retain any ownership he may have of the creations. :

This case is not about whether Jack Kirby or Stan Lee is the real 'creator' of Marvel characters, or whether Kirby (and other freelance artists created culturally iconic comic book characters for Marvel and other publishers) were treated 'fairly' by companies that grew rich off their labor, it is about whether Kirby's work qualifies as work for hire under the Copyright Act of 1909.

, lawyer for the Kirby estate and , acknowledged that while it was a difficult case given “the various arcane and contradictory 'work for hire' decisions under the 1909 Copyright Act[,]" the case was not finished and that the estate planned to appeal the decision.

The New York federal court’s decision to side with Marvel undoubtedly came as a relief to many Hollywood studios and entertainment enterprises given the widespread nature of Marvel’s business. Although , its success appears questionable given , even with an experienced copyright wrangler in Marc Toberoff.

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The has announced that it will be introducing changes regarding domain name disputes under the . These changes will help bring the CDRP in line with the , which is used for , as well as the resolution policies of other major (country code top-level domain) registries. The changes will become effective August 22, 2011.

As a non-profit corporation, CIRA is responsible for managing Canada’s .CA domain extension. CIRA maintains a and is also responsible for executing and enforcing registrations of the .CA ccTLD. Additionally, they maintain a publicly accessible .

will deal with several issues, most notably, the meanings of “use,” “confusingly similar,” and “bad faith.” The alterations by CIRA can be seen as refinements as they will leave the meat of the current CDRP policy intact. The most significant modifications to the policy include: the removal of conditions involving the “rights” and “use” of a trademark; a clarification of the “confusingly similar” test to favour a narrow resemblance test in place of the broader traditional test for confusion; shifting the list of bad faith and legitimate interest factors to be non-exhaustive; the inclusion of a bad faith factor for using a domain name for commercial gain; and the elimination of a required use provision for generic domain names before a legitimate interest can be established.

Other less momentous updates to the CDRP policy also include: a clear definition regarding the date of registration; a shortening of the implementation of CDRP decisions from 60 to 30 days; an option for electronic filing of complaints and submissions (which will become mandatory after 1 year); an inclusion of terms now allowing CIRA to transfer a domain name during a dispute under certain circumstances; and finally, a separation of filing and panelist fees for complainants.

These modifications will enable CIRA to stay up-to-date with current best practices in ccTLD management and should help streamline the CDRP procedure for everyone involved. , see the as well as the .

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Less than a month after announcing its foray into , Google’s YouTube has made another significant announcement by offering users the ability to license their work using . Google is as a way to foster creativity and sharing among its users and is already working with notable organizations such as , , and to create a substantial Creative Commons library for users to experiment with.

is a non-profit organization which operates under the premise of promoting universal access to information through the internet. The organization was founded in 2001 and has spent the past decade working with copyright experts from around the world in order to develop to facilitate this vision. The customizable design of Creative Commons licences enables users to choose the amount of rights they wish to retain instead of operating under the default “all rights reserved” setting traditionally imposed through copyright law. This “some rights reserved” approach is seen by the organization as a way to bridge the gap between the reality of the internet and traditional copyright laws.

Another unique element of the Creative Commons licence is that each licence to increase its effectiveness. First, there is the traditional “Legal Code” layer, followed by a “Human Readable” and a “Machine Readable” layer. These additional “layers” allow lay people to understand the important components of a licence while also providing software and search engines with the ability to recognize the licence. By providing simplicity and ease of use, the licences are an effective way to give the average user more control over their content.

Under the new system, YouTube users will now be to license their work under the when using the . With this licence, other users will be able to remix and share the work, as well as make commercial use of the work, so long as attribution is given to the owner. While Creative Commons typically allows for licensors to choose from a variety of license options, YouTube currently only offers one choice.

The CC-BY licence is one of the most accommodating versions available and is as a way for YouTube to ease the incessant regarding copyright violations on its site. With now uploaded to the site every minute and the majority being user generated, YouTube is somewhat of a cesspool for copyright violation. The sheer volume of users and content has made copyright enforcement difficult.�� While YouTube has taken steps to and these rights, an effective solution remains elusive. The integration of Creative Commons licensing should help encourage users to respect copyright by raising awareness and providing viable alternatives to the internet cultural norm of misappropriating content.

Only time will tell if YouTube’s adoption of the Creative Commons framework will be embraced by enough users to alter perceptions regarding the ownership and sharing of content on the internet or if it will simply amount to another drop in the bucket of copyright law.

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The European Commission recently revealed its to overhaul the European Union’s intellectual property law regarding orphan works. The move is seen by many as an attempt to update and unify the European Union’s standards in light of technological advancements.

The is to ease the threat of liability for copyright infringement when the original owner is undiscoverable in order to bolster innovation and accessibility of information online.��Orphan works are copyrighted works whose owners are unable to be contacted in order to obtain permission for use. The lack of legal certainty arising from the existence of orphan works provides significant barriers to the aggregation and sharing of said works online, particularly for museums, archives, and libraries. To illustrate, the of their copyrighted collections are orphan works. As a result, many works remain hidden from public view due to the exposure to potential lawsuits.

The proposed directive has before orphan works can be safely used. First, the proposal lays the ground work for identifying orphan works requiring a diligent search using databases and registries. Secondly, if this search does not reveal the location or identity of the copyright owner then it is officially labeled an orphan work. This status would then be recognized throughout the European Union. Furthermore, the directive also provides for a generally accessible record of all recognized orphan works. Lastly, the proposal establishes the ways in which various orphan works may be made available online until the copyright owner is properly identified.

The move to provide for lawful cross border access to online orphan works will provide significant benefits for researchers and citizens who will benefit from a streamlined process by receiving much greater access to otherwise unavailable works. The European Commission is the EU funded internet library, , in light of stiff competition from Google. Google has made significant strides in their and Europeana is struggling to compete under current EU laws. such as Apple’s iTunes from the proposal as they currently must deal with each EU country separately before selling tracks across the bloc.

Despite the compelling goals, the proposal has of some critics who claim it unfairly takes advantage of the “little guy.” While there is little controversy surrounding the orphan use of ancient works, the reality of the Internet is one where intellectual property is often stripped of its identifying information while being broadly disseminated. Critics argue that this could pose significant damage to individual copyright owners whose work can no longer be traced to them. It appears that the commission has attempted to address this issue by for legitimate copyright owners to re-establish their copyright and end the orphan work status.

Traditional approaches to intellectual property continue to be challenged by advances in technology. The European Commission’s orphan works proposal is yet another demonstration of lawmakers attempting to adapt and evolve to new realities while still adequately protecting established norms. While some may disagree with the way such changes may be implemented, there is little doubt that such retooling is desperately needed in a rapidly evolving world.

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New internet filtering rules set to commence in Turkey as of August 2011 have gathered international attention and raised the ire of many Turkish citizens recently. four new internet content filtering options: family, children, domestic, or standard as part of their “Safe Internet Service.” Choosing a filtering option will be mandatory under the currently proposed rules.

Turkish opponents of the new rules have created a Facebook page called “”, or “Don’t Touch My Internet!”, to organize country-wide protests against the web filters. The social networking page currently has over 600,000 supporters. The protests, which took place in various locations from Ankara to Istanbul on May 15, 2011, saw thousands of protestors and received .

Turkey's regulatory authority, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) has also provided a list of to be banned from Turkish domain names. The list includes both English and Turkish words, many of which have double meanings. Any websites that do include words from the list will be shut down. Examples include: “gay” and its Turkish pronunciation “gey,” “beat,” “escort,” “homemade,” “hot,” “nubile,” “free,” “teen,” “itiraf” (confession), “liseli” (high school student), “nefes” (breath) and “yasak” (forbidden). “Pic,” short for picture, is also banned as it means “bastard” in Turkish. This poses significant problems for businesses and website operators as domains only need to include part of these words to be shut down by the government. To illustrate, “donanimalemi.com” (hardwareworld.com) would be illegal under the new rules as it includes the word “animal.”

Not surprisingly, the move has met from the . , Representative on Freedom of the Media for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the vice chairwoman Neelie Kroes are among those who have spoken against the new rules. Turkish President Abdullah Gül, however, through posting that “according to information provided to me, nobody will be forced [to use a new filter application],” and that “nobody’s freedoms will be restrained. The private sector will keep providing its services in the same way. Meanwhile, the public [sector] will provide an alternative product [with the filter], as required by its responsibilities.” It should be noted that the statements have been translated from Turkish to English.

Turkey already has a history of blocking web sites through the , which was enacted in 2007. The law allows a variety of actors to appeal to the court or the Telecommunications Authority in order to have certain online content filtered. Often, entire web sites are blocked despite the fact that only a small portion of the content is deemed offensive under Turkish law. YouTube, for example, because of videos insulting founding president of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. after Adnan Oktar, a Muslim creationist writer, claimed that a critic was using the WordPress site to post offensive content about him. Some other major sites to feel the sting of censorship include .

India has also made headlines regarding the freedom of information on the internet. The country recently instituted internet companies to remove objectionable content, which includes anything "grossly harmful" or "harassing" from their sites within 36 hours. The requirements, which took effect in April 2011, have been met with disapproval from , claiming it unfairly exposes them to liability for content posted by third parties. However, Indian authorities have a willingness to reconsider some of the rules to make them more appealing.

Unlike India, Turkey has not expressed any openness to redress the concerns of their citizens or international community when it comes to the freedom of information on the internet. Only time will tell if “Arab Spring” fever will spread to Turkey over the struggle for online freedoms in an already established democracy.

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Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg in March 2011 from his position as German defence minister following revelations that he had plagiarized much of his 2006 doctoral thesis.

Referred to as the “Teflon Minister” for his ability to escape from controversy unscathed, Guttenberg’s resignation came as the result of ; much of which was driven by an regarding the originality of Guttenberg’s thesis, which had been of summa cum laude by the University of Bayreuth.

The allegations against Guttenberg first following a newspaper article by Andreas Fischer-Lescano, a law professor at the University of Bremen, which questioned the minister’s dissertation. From there, an anonymous online group banded together and began dissecting the material while posting their findings on online forums. As the movement grew, the group utilized an online wiki aptly named the . The wiki was created by a leader in online plagiarism-hunting, a doctoral candidate with a background in online gaming who goes under the pseudonym “.” Along with , an employee of , the two have been instrumental in organizing the online effort to analyze Guttenberg’s dissertation, which also paved the way for the establishment of the wiki. The VroniPlag wiki investigates plagiarism in other dissertations and has already been instrumental in the of German politician .

, the GuttenPlag effort found only approximately 5% of the pages of Guttenberg’s thesis to be free from plagiarism. The wiki implements a to illustrate its findings white pages indicate no plagiarism, black represents plagiarism, and red indicates plagiarism from multiple sources. While intentional plagiarism, Guttenberg soon after and the recently released a following its own investigation into the matter. Eyebrows were also raised by the fact that some of the plagiarism resulted from , which is not permitted for personal use.

Guttenberg, whose full name is Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, is still one of Germany’s most despite the scandal and is to still have a future in politics. Guttenberg’s popularity is bolstered by his aristocratic lineage and he, along with his wife, to represent a form of German royalty.

Guttenberg’s quest to obtain a doctorate was likely influenced by the in Germany. found that 58.5% of chief executives in Germany had a PhD vs only 1.3% in the US even though both countries have similar rates for overall population participation in PhD programs. As such, a PhD in Germany is instead of advancing academic research.

The proliferation of doctorates in Germany among non-academics makes it likely that many others will face scrutiny in light of the Guttenberg scandal, particularly in light of of the VroniPlag wiki. However, the lack of accountability on the part of anonymous online “plagiarism hunters” has made some uncomfortable. Volker Rieble, a plagiarism expert and law professor at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, of anonymously accusing someone of plagiarism since the accused doesn’t know who is attacking his credibility.

The internet has revolutionized and altered many of the traditional approaches to both life and business, online and offline, and plagiarism is no exception. With the success and attention of WikiLeaks, GuttenPlag, and VroniPlag, it appears that the era of anonymous vigilantes is upon us.

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Online tracking of children has become an increasingly hot topic as concerned parents and privacy advocates push for greater protection of children’s online information, particularly amid revelations that and over children’s online privacy.

Increasing concern on the issue has resulted in Edward J. Markey (Democratic Representative of Massachusetts) and Joe Barton (Republican Representative of Texas) releasing a draft of the , which in its current form goes far beyond current federal requirements.

The bill’s stated goal is “[t]o amend the to extend, enhance, and revise the provisions relating to collection, use, and disclosure of personal information of children and to establish certain other protections for personal information of children and minors.” Currently, websites targeting children under the age of 13 are only required to obtain parental permission before collecting personal information. It should be noted that this bill is different from the (Democratic Representative of West Virginia) which seeks to allow all users the option of opting out of being tracked through their web browser. This functionality is already available through browsers by , , , and .

Some of the key proposals of the bill are to limit companies from sharing non-core (e.g. site functionality) information with third parties, update COPPA to address new technology and call on the Federal Trade Commission to update COPPA rules. The bill also provides for the creation of a controversial “Eraser Button” which would call for the removal of all of the child’s information to the extent that is technologically feasible.

While there are arguments both and the development of an “Eraser Button,” there are still significant questions regarding the practicality of such a provision given the sheer volume of data and difficulty in controlling information once it becomes public.

The growing influence of social networks has also contributed to the debate as a found 46% of 12 year olds and 62% of 13 year olds use social network sites. Many of the sites, such as Facebook, prohibit children under 13 from using their services but have difficulty adequately enforcing the policy as they rely on information provided by the user. after a revealed that the social network has approximately 7.5 million users under the age of 13 and 5 million users 10 and under.

There is no easy solution to the regulation of social networks as with the director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, David Vladeck, illustrates. to restrict how social networks handle the personal information of those under the age of 18. The bill would set baseline requirements for privacy settings, make privacy settings available at signup, and allow parents to have their children’s information removed within 48 hours.

Despite much support from consumer privacy groups, there has been significant and who claim it will seriously harm their ability to operate their business. It remains to be seen how such bills will evolve in order to strike a balance between effectively protecting children without unnecessarily damaging the ability of internet companies to do business.

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Recently, Apple garnered unwanted attention when it was that the iPhone was recording location and time stamp data through its GPS and wireless internet capabilities and then backing up the information, unencrypted, whenever users synced the device with their computers.

It is no secret that the latest evolution of the mobile phone, the aptly named “smart” phone, has unearthed fresh concerns regarding the use and protection of personal information. The technological development of mobile smartphones has rapidly accelerated in recent years, and they have now attained mainstream acceptance with expected to have one by the end of 2011 (Canadian numbers unavailable). With their newfound capabilities and use as an extremely personal, go-everywhere device, smartphones have the potential to provide insight into an individual’s characteristics, preferences, and life in a way never seen before. Unfortunately, the lack of set rules, expectations, and general knowledge regarding the collection and use of this information has resulted in a murky mess for many consumers looking to understand how their information is being use.

At the forefront of the consumer smartphone market is Apple’s iconic iPhone and a smorgasbord of manufacturers built on Google’s Android platform. While many were outraged at Apple’s collection and storage of location and time stamp data and the apparent disregard for users’ privacy, Apple pointed to their which, near the end of the document, grants them the right to collect anonymized location data. Nonetheless, Apple recently to reduce the amount of data collected, remove backup files, and delete the data entirely when location services are turned off.

Apple is far from alone in the controversy; Google also collects location data. According to , an Android powered smartphone will collect data every few seconds and then transmit the data back to Google several times an hour. However, Google claims that the user must first agree to enable location services on their phone before this data collection occurs. Unlike the anonymized iPhone data, the study showed that Google also gathered a unique identifier tied to each individual phone.

Rather than striving to create a big brother scenario, it appears that the motivation for corporations to monitor users’ behaviour is being driven by marketing potential. that they are actively involved in building a giant database of information, of which location data plays a valuable role. It is no surprise that the data available for collection via smartphone devices represents a potential gold-mine for advertisers. As such, the thirst for smartphone data will only increase as technology becomes more powerful, and will only be tempered if consumers demand control over their information coupled with the law adapting to manage this new reality.

The root of the problem seems to be a lack of transparency throughout the entire process of data collection. Most of the information regarding smartphone data collection has only come to light after being revealed by independent researchers. This means the average user rarely has a clear idea of what data is collected and depends on the media for accurate information. Furthermore, this lack of knowledge equates with a lack of control. While the scarcity of clear rules and regulations are to be expected with any emerging technology, this digital Wild West has created an environment which implicitly encourages the bending of rules and opaque procedures in the lucrative data chase.

If the first quarter of 2011 is any indication, expect this to be a breakout year for issues regarding technology and its widening influence on privacy and personal information matters. In response to the fallout from the iPhone location data revelations, Senator Al Franken (Democrat Representative of Minnesota), Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, is . Additionally, lawsuits have been filed by customers against both and regarding the collection of location data. For those interested in more information regarding privacy and technology, The Wall Street Journal’s blog is an excellent resource. You can also stay up-to-date by following them on twitter .

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