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Tips for Tuesday – LinkedIn

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Legal Marketing Association’s Social Media Special Interest Group’s (a long name, so we shorten it to LMA Social Media SIG) first webinar.  Our presenters today were my friends Gail Lamarche, the Director of Marketing for Henderson Franklin and Laura Gutierrez, Marketing Multimedia Communications Coordinator with Winthrop & Weinstine.

Their focus? One of my favorite social media topics – LinkedIn!

I won’t recap the entire webinar, since participation in the SIG, and as a result, access to the webinars, is a benefit of membership in the Legal Marketing Association. But I did learn some great tips from Laura and Gail, which I wanted to share with you. 

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ILN Today Post

Amazon.com Finally Gets its “One-Click” Patent

In the last issue of IP Currents, we reported that the Federal Court of Appeal had ordered the Canadian Patent Office to re-examine, on an expedited basis, Amazon.com’s Canadian patent application for its “one-click” internet shopping ordering method. The Patent Office had refused the application on the basis that it was directed to a business method that the Patent Office did not consider to be patentable subject matter. A series of appeals followed which culminated in the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the patenting of business methods. More…

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ILN Today Post

Copyright and Pre-judgment Interest

Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada v. llC Enterprises Ltd. Cob as Cheetah’s Nightclub [2011 FC 471399 (Fed Court)]

On Dec 1, 2011, the Federal Court (FC) gave a decision on appeal from the Prothonotary’s decision in which the Prothonotary refused to grant pre-judgment interest to the successful Plaintiff from the date on which the Plaintiff’s cause of action arose, in accordance with the BC Act regarding interest. The Plaintiff elected statutory damages under the Copyright Act. The Plaintiff was granted pre-judgment interest from the date of issuance of the Statement of Claim in the FC to the date of the judgment. The FC agreed with the Prothonotary. With respect to collectives, such as this Plaintiff, which elect statutory damages under the Copyright Act for copyright infringement, this election is “in lieu of any other remedy of a monetary nature provided by the Copyright Act”. Where the Plaintiff chooses not to pursue a claim for unpaid provincial license fees, its right to pre-judgment interest from the date on which the Plaintiff’s cause of action arose is affected.

Colleen Spring Zimmerman is a member of Fogler, Rubinoff’s Intellectual Property Group, which provides a full range of intellectual property legal services, including protecting, licensing and enforcing intellectual property.

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Trademark Audits

Even if your company is not Coca-Cola®, whose trademarks were valued at over $70 million in 2011, your trademarks and other intellectual property could be among the most valuable assets owned by your business. Like any other valuable asset, trademarks need proper care and maintenance, both to ensure that they can carry out the roles they were designed to perform, and to maximize their value.

With that in mind, it is important to regularly conduct a review, in conjunction with our IP team, to ensure that the following guidelines are being followed on all materials produced by your business: More…

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Nauris Grigals on possible solutions how to shorten administrative court proceedings, “Dienas Bizness”

Nauris Grigals

Attorney at law Nauris Grigals from law office TARK GRUNTE SUTKIENE expresses his opinion on possible solutions how to shorten administrative court proceedings in January 18, 2012 issue of newspaper “Dienas Bizness”.

Click here to read the publication (available in Latvian).

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Fast-tracking of Green Technology Patents

We are approaching the one year anniversary of the Canadian Patent Office’s implementation of expedited examination for patent applications for green (environmental) technologies. The initiative is part of a government effort to support the development of a clean energy economy.

Normally, Canadian patent applications are only examined out of turn if the patent applicant can establish that it will be prejudiced if its patent application is not examined in an expedited manner. Requests for expedited examination (called Special Order) are typically made in cases of actual or threatened patent infringement which can only be pursued once the patent issues, or commercialization where there is a need to have the patent in hand to conclude a technology license for example. A $500 government fee is required to request Special Order. More…

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Digital IP and the Supreme Court of Canada Crookes v. Newton

In late 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) defined the function of hyperlinks on websites and, in so doing, dealt with some novel issues raised by the Internet. This was a libel case involving a claim that the Respondent (Newton) defamed the Appellant (Crookes) by posting a hyperlink to a third party’s alleged defamatory material. A hyperlink [1] is a reference to data that the linkee can directly follow to access the target document. The SCC was clear that the link itself will not be viewed as a publication in a defamation action. However, the addition of commentary approving or adopting the content of the target document could give rise to liability. The Court held that the use of a hyperlink cannot, by itself, amount to publication, even if the hyperlink is followed and the defamatory content accessed. More…

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The secret recipe behind “Reggae Reggae sauce”

The case of Anthony Bailey and another Keith Graham and others [2011] EWHC 3098 (Ch) involved a claim brought against Levi Roots relating to the secret recipe behind his “Reggae Reggae sauce”, which became a well known success following his appearance on the television show Dragon’s Den.

Anthony Bailey and Sylvester Williams alleged Mr Roots (whose real name is Keith Graham) breached a duty of confidence relating to the secret recipe of the sauce, and breached an oral agreement regarding its commercial exploitation. More…

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Trends 2012: Employment tribunals

A version of this article first appeared in HR Zone (www.hrzone.co.uk) on
9 January 2012.

After being “positively outraged” at the way in which the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust behaved, an employment tribunal awarded compensation of £4.5 million in December to Polish-born consultant Dr Eva Michalak. The record breaking award was ordered after Dr Michalak was found to be the victim of prolonged sex and race discrimination at the hands of her colleagues, who mounted a “concerted campaign” to bring her employment to an end because of her ethnic origins and because she took maternity leave.

The campaign started with secret meetings (even before Dr Michalak went on maternity leave), which included references to her Polish background and connected issues of competency.  On returning from maternity leave, Dr Michalak made a request for equal pay which was refused.  Following her subsequent allegation of sex discrimination, Dr Michalak’s colleagues started to make complaints about her which were based on “deliberate falsehoods” and led to her “lengthy and wholly unauthorised” suspension in January 2006.  The related disciplinary proceedings did not take place until over a year later in May 2007, which finally resulted in her dismissal in July 2008. More…

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Linda Štrause comments on legal consequences of delay of term set for review of privatisation proposals, “Dienas Bizness”

Linda Strause

Attorney at law Linda Štrause from law office TARK GRUNTE SUTKIENE comments on possible legal consequences which could arise from the fact, that Riga City Council has not been able to review all privatisation proposals within the due term in January 16, 2012 issue of newspaper “Dienas Bizness”.

Click here to read the publication (available in Latvian).

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NLRB Increases Scrutiny of Employer Restrictions on Employee Social Media Usage

By:      Ana S. Salper

No governmental body has been more active in addressing social media’s impact on the workplace than the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”). For both unionized and non-unionized employers, the Board has been aggressively scrutinizing the contours of employer discipline of employees for their activities on social media sites, and has regulated and constricted the scope and breadth of employer social media policies. Following his first report in August 2011, National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon has now released a second report describing social media cases reviewed by his office.

Solomon’s report covers 14 cases, half of which address issues regarding employer social media policies, the other half of which involve discharges of employees after they posted comments to Facebook. The report underscores two main points:   

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