News

If you send email information and newsletters to people on email address lists, you may wish to become aware of the requirements of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).  The date on which CASL comes into force and effect has not yet been stated.  However, the Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations were published ...

Some amount of copying of content on the internet is permitted, but how much?

The June 21, 2012 case of Warman v. Fournier (Federal Court of Canada, Trial Division) provides some guidance.

Under the Copyright Act (Canada) (RSC 1985,c. C-42), “copyright” is defined as “the sole right to produce or reproduce the work or any substantial ...

An article written by Derek Sankey and published in the September 30, 2012 on-line edition of the Financial Post (FP Cross Border: http://t.co/QI8k2cdC #) speaks to the importance of considering both the commercial and strategic uses for the information you may obtain, prior to entering into a Confidentiality Agreement with that company.

Essentially, the article comments on a recent Delaware case dealing with the right to use information obtained pursuant to a confidentiality agreement for acquisition purposes when the information was originally obtained for another purpose.  The Delaware Court ...

In the landmark case of Jones v. Tsige 2012 ONCA 32, issued on January 18, 2012, the Ontario Court of Appeal extended the right to privacy.

In that case Tsige, a BMO employee, accessed confidential records of Jones, another BMO employee, while Tsige was in a relationship with Jones’ former husband.  BMO disciplined Tsige for breach of its code of conduct, however the question before the Court of Appeal was whether Jones has a right to seek ...

Can accessing a public website give rise to the formation of a contract?  This was one of the issues in Century 21 Canada Limited Partnership v. Rogers Communications Inc. a decision of a Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, September 2011.  The decision can be found at: http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2011/2011bcsc1196/2011bcsc1196.html

A contract has at its basic core an offer, acceptance and consideration.  Consideration is an exchange ...

According to the Federal Court of Canada decision Spirits International B.V. v. BCF S.E.N.C.R.L, rendered in June, 2011, if you own a trademark and are allowing other companies, including wholly owned or other affiliates or subsidiaries to use your trade-mark, it is important that you enter into a license or other agreement to authorize the other entity to use the trade-mark, sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the Trade-marks Act (Canada) RSC 1985 c ...

On November 6, 2011 the online version of the Globe & Mail (Toronto) reported a story that confidential tax files of 2,700 Canadians had been downloaded to 16 CDs, taken home by an employee and at least 1 of the CDs had been uploaded to a friend’s laptop.  This was in 2006, and was not reported to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Laws

Both federal and provincial laws require private organizations to protect personal information and personal health information ...

I was reading the Ontario Reports recently. These are weekly reports that contain information and advertising directed to lawyers, and recent judgments from the Ontario courts. A case that might be of interest to business people is the Ontario Court of Appeal judgment in Agribrands Purina Canada Inc. v Kasamekas [2011] ONCA 460.

It is a case where Purina entered into an agreement with a company called Raywalt (which was a corporation owned by Kasamekas and his family) for a dealership in selling Purina ...