Key Copyright Decisions In 2018

It has been a very interesting year in the Copyright world with a number of significant decisions being released. The interface between the Copyright Act and the Competition Act; bright line tests in tariff hearings; the exception for those who provide the means of telecommunication; copyright in structural plans; the interface between copyright and laws of general application; the notice and notice regime and the nature of disclosure and ex parte orders have all been considered.

In Toronto Real Estate Board v. Commissioner of Competition the Competition Bureau found that the Board's restrictive practices concerning distributing web-based data substantially reduced competition contrary to section 79 and rejected the defences raised by the Board. One defence was a claim that under subsection 79(5) of the Competition Act the assertion of an intellectual property right copyright, could not be an anti-competitive act. Subsection 79(5) provides that for the purpose of