Quarterly Copyright Blog #5

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 discussed below:

On October 29, 2018 the government tabled the Budget Implementation Act, 2018. The Government has said that the bill was intended to implement a 2017 Budget commitment to implement practical and important reforms to the Canadian IP system. Division 7 of the bill is entitled Intellectual Property Strategy. Subdivision C relates to the notice and notice regime and is intended to stop abuse relating to the content of claimed infringement notices. A notice of claimed infringement shall not contain an offer to settle the claimed infringement; a request or demand for payment or for personal information; a reference, including by way of hyperlink, to such an offer, request or demand; and other information to be prescribed. Subdivision E amends the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to provide that intellectual property users may preserve their usage rights when intellectual property rights are sold or disposed of in an insolvency proceeding or when an agreement relating to such property rights is disclaimed or resiliated in such a proceeding. It also amends the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act to provide that intellectual property users may preserve their usage rights when intellectual property rights are sold or disposed of. Subdivision H relates to the reform of the Copyright Board as a result of consultations launched in August 2017. The Act has been amended to modernize the legislative...