In addition to that interesting virtual trespassing lawsuit, another legal conflict ongoing in Wisconsin had a major development this week. As you'll recall, Milwaukee County enacted a regulation in February requiring augmented reality game developers to go through a rigorous approval process with several very expensive requirement to operate in Milwaukee's parks. Although this targeted Niantic and Pokémon Go, another game developer Candy Labs challenged this in court and won an injunction this week from the court against enforcement of the regulation until a full trial, scheduled in early 2018. For now, Niantic and others can operate for players in this area again.
I will analyze this in detail on Current Geek as the trial occurs, but the legal challenge to the regulation based on First Amendment free speech protections is a close call in my initial view. But it's a good sign that the judge entered an injunction, as that typically means there's a good chance to prevail at trial also. So Niantic didn't just win with the anniversary event and legendary raids this week!
As always, check out my segment on Current Geek, and send feedback at BuckeyeFitzy on discord or Twitter.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Legal Geek No. 109: Interesting Canadian Cases show significant differences "Up North"
Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we update you on a couple interesting legal battles ongoing in Canada, which show significant differences from similar conflicts and issues faced down here in the U.S.
https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp109
https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp109
Last week this segment covered in detail how free speech protection cut down the U.S. trademark law prohibiting registration of so-called offensive or disparaging trademarks. Free speech in the context of offensive words and government programs appear to have different standards in Canada, as evidenced again this week in a conflict involving license plate registrations.
A Star Trek fan had the license plate ASIMIL8, in other words, assimilate, but this registration was revoked by the local authorities in Manitoba because two indigenous people had lodged complaints that the plate was offensive to them. Of course, the counterargument is that the license plate refers to the much different context of Star Trek and the Borg, made more obvious by a license plate holder that says "We are the Borg...Resistance is futile." However, with no appeals process available at the registration board, the Star Trek fan will have to go to court to try and have this issue overturned.
It's another intersection between potentially offensive speech and government registration programs, just like the U.S. case last week. But this time, Canada appears to lean more in favor of speech restrictions to avoid offense to others, at least more so than the U.S. standards.
A similar case is pending on a license plate GRABHER, which was deemed offensive to women but was registered by someone having that last name. It will be interesting to see how far free speech protection goes in Canada when taken to the courts in this context, even though the preliminary results don't look favorable.
Another interesting legal decision occurred in Canada regarding trademarks and trade dress a couple weeks ago, when the makers of Captain Morgan rum shut down competitor Admiral Nelson from selling that competing rum using the trademarks and packaging similar to Captain Morgan's registered and common law marks. The makers of Captain Morgan supplied enough evidence of potential consumer confusion to sustain the trademark infringement and false passing off claims.
So therefore, Admiral Nelson will walk the plank for now as a rebrand for this rum product will be required in Canada. Hearthstone fans might say Captain Morgan is now in charrrge of the nautical themed rum market up north. Regardless, I'm sure you can find plenty of good rums to fill your tropical drinks during this mid summertime heat.
The Bottom Line is, laws and constitutional protections vary from country to country, sometimes wildly. Although the Legal Geek is no expert on Canadian law, it is fascinating to see the different lines drawn in the sand on legal topics that are much the same in conflicts we cover regularly in the U.S.
The main show hosts are set to be on vacation the next couple weeks, so please enjoy the summer break and send in topics to refill the Legal Geek hopper heading into August. See you then!
----------------------------------
Do you have a question? Send it in!
Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy
https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp109
https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp109
Last week this segment covered in detail how free speech protection cut down the U.S. trademark law prohibiting registration of so-called offensive or disparaging trademarks. Free speech in the context of offensive words and government programs appear to have different standards in Canada, as evidenced again this week in a conflict involving license plate registrations.
A Star Trek fan had the license plate ASIMIL8, in other words, assimilate, but this registration was revoked by the local authorities in Manitoba because two indigenous people had lodged complaints that the plate was offensive to them. Of course, the counterargument is that the license plate refers to the much different context of Star Trek and the Borg, made more obvious by a license plate holder that says "We are the Borg...Resistance is futile." However, with no appeals process available at the registration board, the Star Trek fan will have to go to court to try and have this issue overturned.
It's another intersection between potentially offensive speech and government registration programs, just like the U.S. case last week. But this time, Canada appears to lean more in favor of speech restrictions to avoid offense to others, at least more so than the U.S. standards.
A similar case is pending on a license plate GRABHER, which was deemed offensive to women but was registered by someone having that last name. It will be interesting to see how far free speech protection goes in Canada when taken to the courts in this context, even though the preliminary results don't look favorable.
Another interesting legal decision occurred in Canada regarding trademarks and trade dress a couple weeks ago, when the makers of Captain Morgan rum shut down competitor Admiral Nelson from selling that competing rum using the trademarks and packaging similar to Captain Morgan's registered and common law marks. The makers of Captain Morgan supplied enough evidence of potential consumer confusion to sustain the trademark infringement and false passing off claims.
So therefore, Admiral Nelson will walk the plank for now as a rebrand for this rum product will be required in Canada. Hearthstone fans might say Captain Morgan is now in charrrge of the nautical themed rum market up north. Regardless, I'm sure you can find plenty of good rums to fill your tropical drinks during this mid summertime heat.
The Bottom Line is, laws and constitutional protections vary from country to country, sometimes wildly. Although the Legal Geek is no expert on Canadian law, it is fascinating to see the different lines drawn in the sand on legal topics that are much the same in conflicts we cover regularly in the U.S.
The main show hosts are set to be on vacation the next couple weeks, so please enjoy the summer break and send in topics to refill the Legal Geek hopper heading into August. See you then!
----------------------------------
Do you have a question? Send it in!
Thanks for reading. Please provide feedback and legal-themed questions as segment suggestions to me on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)