Below is our Month in Review for September, highlighting posts on our snIP/ITs blog. You can follow the links to any of these specific posts, or you can visit the blog at www.canadiantechlawblog.com.

Bitcoin accepted here? Funding M&A transactions by way of Bitcoin
By Ana Badour on September 22nd, 2014

There is no denying the increasing popularity and notoriety of the virtual currency Bitcoin. Bitcoin market capitalization currently stands in the billions of dollars, with over 13 million Bitcoins having been mined and made available for circulation. An increasing number of merchants, including Dell, have begun accepting payment by way of Bitcoin. The list of …

Technological neutrality and copyright: Supreme Court grants leave to clarify scope in CBC v. SODRAC
By Barry Sookman on September 22nd, 2014

The Supreme Court granted leave to appeal on September 4, 2014 in another copyright case, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation / Société Radio-Canada v. SODRAC 2003 Inc. The appeal is from the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal which ruled that broadcasters must pay royalties for ephemeral recordings in accordance with the 1990 decision of the …

CASL’s inscrutable computer program provisions to be tackled by CRTC
By Barry Sookman on September 19th, 2014

With the computer program sections of Canada’s anti-spam/anti-malware law coming into force in January 2015, the CRTC has now started reaching out to the public for questions they want guidance on in FAQs or bulletins. I attended such a session last week (on September 9, 2014) at an IT.CAN Public Affairs Forum Roundtable. The …

Granting Trademark Protection to the Design and Layout of Retail Stores
By Cristel Chabot-Lapointe on September 18th, 2014

On July 10, 2014 the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its decision in Apple Inc. v. Deutsches Patent und Markenamt and recognized the possibility to register a three-dimensional representation of the design and layout of a retail store as a Community Trade Mark. In May 12, 2010, Apple Inc. ...

“Objectively Reasonable” and Privacy: Recent Developments
By Roland Hung and Kimberly Macnab on September 16th, 2014

The ubiquitous and rapidly-evolving nature of technology has recently necessitated serious consideration of our “reasonable expectation of privacy.” This concept is at the core of Canadian privacy law. In particular, the concept is a key part of the Charter test for s. 8, the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure. The Supreme …

When Does an Employer own Copyright in a Photograph Made by an Employee?
By Keith Rose on September 2nd, 2014

An employee takes a photograph of a customer on the employer’s premises. The employee has a signed employment agreement which states that all materials developed during the term of the contract are property of the employer. The employer obtains a copy of the photograph and uses it in social media. Later, the employee is terminated …