Copyright Quarterly: Issue 1

For those who are interested in recent cases and developments relating to copyright and related matters there have been a number of developments since the last entry. They are set out below:

The Statutory Review of the Canadian Copyright Act

On 27 March 2018, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology published a plan under which it will conduct its review of the Copyright Act. The review will be carried out in three phases. The Committee will hear testimony from:

Witnesses representing specific sectors of activity, including publishing, visual arts, software and telecommunications (Phase I);

Witnesses representing a range of stakeholders involved in multiple sectors of activity, such as Indigenous communities and various interest groups (Phase II); and

Legal experts, including individual lawyers and academics, along with professional associations (Phase III).

All three phases are to be completed by early 2019.

Canada's New Intellectual Property Strategy

On April 26, 2018 the government launched a new Intellectual Property Strategy to help Canadian entrepreneurs better understand and protect intellectual property and also get better access to shared intellectual property. The components of the Strategy that will affect copyright include the following proposed legislative changes:

"The Notice and Notice Regime

While most rights holders have used the notice and notice regime responsibly, a small number of bad actors have leveraged it to send threatening demands to make settlement payments. We will make it explicit that notices that include such demands do not comply with the regime. This would protect consumers while ensuring that the Notice and Notice regime remains effective in discouraging infringement.

IP Licences in Bankruptcy Proceedings

Currently, in restructuring, IP licensees in good standing can continue to use the IP if the debtor disclaims the licence. New amendments will extend this right to liquidation proceedings."

In addition Government has also announced that it will:

"Expedited IP dispute resolution

IP rights' owners and users will benefit from more efficient and less costly IP dispute resolution and copyright tariff setting at the Federal Court and Copyright Board of Canada."

No details concerning when these changes will be implemented have been provided.

CASE LAW

The Board's Fair Dealing Analysis was Correct

An application for judicial review from the decision of the Copyright Board concerning the Access...