Feeling the Burn

Unlike copyright and trade-marks, we don't often see fashion houses duke it out in the patent arena.  It's no surprise that the fashion world's interest was piqued when one of Canada's most successful athletic retailers, Lululemon, launched a patent design infringement case against Calvin Klein in the US. 

 

For those who had their bottle of bubbly chilled waiting for the outcome of the case, it appears that the bottle will stay corked.  Lululemon filed its Notice of Voluntary Dismissal today against Calvin Klein.  It's a pretty safe bet that the parties settled the matter - likely under confidential terms.  Although reaching a settlement is often the most cost effective and time efficient route for companies that are embroiled in litigation, it always presents a missed opportunity to set interesting case law for the fashion community. 

 

Stay tuned to CanadaFashionLaw for updates on other interesting cases. 

Hear ye, hear ye!

Sometimes when you're a start-up business or entrepreneur, life can be a little overwhelming.  It's a delight to see that the Canadian Intellectual Property Office is ensuring that this doesn't happen to small and medium business enterprises! 

 

Over the next few weeks, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office will be hosting a series of roundtable discussions throughout Canada with small and medium enterprises to ascertain what their experience is with Canada's intellectual property system.  It will be interesting to hear what the barriers and challenges face small and medium business enterprises in protecting and enforcing their intellectual property in Canada.  What works?  What needs a little mani-pedi-botox?  It will also be interesting to see if any changes are made to Canada's intellectual property system, to better assist the small and medium business enterprises.

 

Here's a summary of the roundtables. if you're interested in attending the roundtables to voice your opinion or to hear what others have to say:

 

• Halifax: November 21 and 22
• Montreal: November 28 and 29
• Edmonton: December 5 and 6
• Ottawa: December 10 and 11
• Toronto: December 11
• Waterloo: December 12

 

Beautifully Legal? Legally Beautiful?

Although CanadaFashionLaw tries to steer clear of shameless plugs, we couldn't resist letting you know about our upcoming event that will be of interest to players in the cosmetics and beauty product industry.   

 

CanadaFashionLaw will be participating in a free breakfast seminar that looks at the legal issues surrounding the beauty industry.  Our aim is to help you cleanse your pores and launch into the Canadian market fresh-faced!  This seminar will tackle branding, regulatory, corporate/commercial and patent laws. 

 

If you think that your business strategy may need a little mani-pedi-botox, feel free to check out the invite: