Intellectual Property
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July 16, 2025
Be cautious when using a variant of a registered trademark
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is the registered owner of the trademark SAGE & Design Mark, for use in association with “restaurant services; catering services.” The registration does not include a colour claim.
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July 16, 2025
Dentons stands by its commitment to inclusion as it navigates trade volatility, say CEOs
These are “interesting times” to be one of the world’s largest law firms. With about 5,900 lawyers across more than 80 countries, Dentons is helping clients navigate some of the worst economic volatility in decades and generational technological change as it carefully works to protect its own flanks from a U.S. administration that’s frequently been hostile to the legal sector. Global CEO Kate Barton said that while several major U.S. law firms have been targeted by President Donald Trump — particularly those perceived as opposing him or representing his adversaries — Dentons has managed to avoid the administration’s scrutiny by maintaining a bipartisan approach.
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July 16, 2025
Prepare for change: The plain language legal writing standard is coming
What lawyer has not heard that legal writing should be clear and concise? Everyone wants legal documents to be straightforward, client-oriented and “crisp.” Yet, cryptic memoranda, wordy submissions, legalese-filled judgments and insurmountable walls of text in contracts and policies remain common. Even with clarity in mind, writing clearly is hard without knowing the rules to guide the process.
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July 14, 2025
Federal Court judge strikes SRL’s submission in employment dispute over AI hallucination citation
In another sign of AI’s growing impact on the law, the Federal Court has ordered that a self-represented respondent’s motion record be removed from a court file because it relied in part on a non-existent court decision hallucinated by an artificial intelligence (AI) research tool.
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July 11, 2025
FINTRAC flags rising use of dual-use goods, cryptocurrencies in weapons proliferation
Canada’s financial intelligence unit, FINTRAC, is warning that foreign actors are increasingly targeting Canadian dual-use goods and turning to cryptocurrencies in efforts to acquire resources and information to build weapons of mass destruction and evade counter-proliferation controls.
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July 10, 2025
Federal Court awards Turkish broadcaster $5.96M in damages for copyright infringement
The Federal Court has ordered certain IPTV providers to pay $5.96 million in statutory damages for infringing a Turkish broadcaster’s copyright in 2,974 episodes of 22 TV series and its live television channel.
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July 10, 2025
Oyen Wiggs welcomes Alexandria Giesbrecht as an associate
Oyen Wiggs has announced that Alexandria (Lexi) Giesbrecht has joined the firm as an associate lawyer after summering and articling with the firm.
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July 04, 2025
Federal Court upholds dismissal of UBC trademark challenge
The Federal Court has upheld the dismissal of the University of British Columbia’s opposition to a trademark registration by a food services company, finding that UBC failed to prove that the mark was not distinctive or confusing in relation to its own restaurant and catering mark.
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July 03, 2025
Amendments to Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure and impacts on settlement
New amendments to Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure have brought new obligations for settling parties.
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July 02, 2025
Smart & Biggar promotes 10 lawyers, 3 to principal roles
Smart & Biggar has announced the promotion of 10 team members, including Dominique Lambert, Artemis Lai and Victoria Townsend, who have all been elevated to principal.