And on the 7th day God created…Intellectual Property rights? Ok, well the Vatican might not be claiming that they are the holy keepers of intellectual property rights, but earlier this year, the city-state surrounded by Rome, decided to put its foot down on how and when the likeness of Pope Francis, the 266th Pope of [...]
Having burned through your personal savings and explored the friends and family round, most entrepreneurs will wonder what's next on the start-up financing front. Depending on your business and the success, or lack thereof, that you may have at this stage, you might think that an angel investment or even venture capital could be secured. [...]
As I have alluded to in the past, intellectual property is a form of property. Which puts intellectual property professionals in a unique position. Specifically, their services are a form of investment. Why? Because you can eventually sell the intellectual property portfolio those professionals helped you build. Unlike most services, all that time and [...]
As competition in certain sectors of knowledge-based economies becomes more crowded and competitive, predatory companies, savvy in intellectual property, have become emboldened to initiate legal actions based on highly suspect patent, trade-mark, copyright and confidential information claims (or some combination thereof), with a view to keeping their competitors at bay. High litigation costs can [...]
There is a poor little cousin in Intellectual Property and his name is ID which is an Industrial Design. An industrial design protects the visual aspects of a product. This form of protection is almost rarely considered since a lot of clients are focused on obtaining a patent, a trademark or even some copyright registrations [...]
Following lawsuits around fashion in the news can often be disheartening. Fashion designers are often not afforded a lot of legal protection and cases can be dismissed easily for lack of merit. I have proposed that copyright laws should be reformed to protect clothing and accessories, but there are already some other established and emerging [...]
For my first post on the Andrews Robichaud blog, I wrote about the rapid growth and adoption of blockchain technology. Since then, the cost of a single Bitcoin (BTC) has risen to around $4000.00 USD and the number of cryptocurrencies in circulation has now exceeded 850. It’s hard to go an entire day without hearing [...]
Todd Plaskacz is a Senior Associate at Andrews Robichaud, as a registered Trademark Agent, Mr. Plaskacz regularly provides guidance and advice to clients on branding, internet domain name protection and trademark prosecution and registration in Canada and the U.S. in addition to advising on a wide array of business and corporate matters. In a [...]
You have probably heard of The Art of War. Maybe you have even read it. I did, a long time ago. As an oft quoted book in pop culture and academia, I figured I should get it straight from the horse’s mouth. In this case, the horse’s mouth is a debatable translation from ancient Chinese [...]
We are very good at advising on how one should go about protecting valuable intellectual property assets, as patents, designs, trademarks or copyright. But while innovation continues to accelerate, the innovation system that we use to protect and commercialize these rights have evolved very slowly, and in today’s world in many instances seem antiquated, lopsided [...]
