When does copyright transfer to the Crown under the Copyright
Act? The Supreme Court clarified this in a landmark ruling released
earlier today in Keatley Surveying Ltd. v. Teranet Inc., 2019
SCC 43, authoritatively interpreting Section 12 of the Act.
The Court did so in delivering two sets of reasons, the majority
written by Justice Abella (Moldaver, Karakatsanis and Martin
JJ. concurring) and by Justices Côté and Brown JJ.
(Wagner C.J. concurring). All seven Judges agreed that the decision
of the Court of Appeal (2017 ONCA 748) which sided with Teranet
should be affirmed. In the result, the Court unanimously agreed
that when surveyors register or deposit plans of survey in a public
registry system (including land titles) and those plans are made
available to the public by the Ontario Government or its service
provider Teranet, the copyright in the surveys passes to the
Crown.
