Canadian Technology & IP Law : Canadian Technology Lawyers & Attorneys : Stikeman Elliott Law Firm : IP Law in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa & Vancouver

The recent economic turmoil has brought to the forefront concerns by licensees as to what happens to their rights to licensed intellectual property upon the bankruptcy of a licensor.  Unfortunately, under Canadian law, the answer to that question is not clear.

Background

In Canada, it is generally accepted that a bankruptcy trustee has the right to disclaim certain types of contracts, in order to promote a viable restructuring of a bankrupt business.  However, it is not clear whether an IP license agreement can be disclaimed as an executory contract (which are contracts with ongoing obligations on both sides) by a bankrupt licensor's trustee in bankruptcy.

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Leduc v. Roman, 2009 CanLII 6838 (Ont. S.C.J.).

Alex Colangelo

Existence of Facebook profile allowed for inference that private portion of profile may contain relevant material

The parties in this case were involved in a motor vehicle accident in 2004. The plaintiff subsequently initiated an action claiming that the defendant’s negligence resulted in a lessened enjoyment of life. Sometime after Mr. Leduc’s examination for discovery, defence counsel discovered that the plaintiff maintained a Facebook account. The privacy settings on the account, however, restricted access to his profile, resulting in only the plaintiff’s name, city of residence and profile photograph being accessible to the defendant.

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