potential claims by exclusive distributors against importers of grey market goods.
Other major developments included:
the Trademark Office s issue of new limits on extensions of time for responding to an office action; and
the availability of expedited examination for trademark applications where the goods or services are for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19.
This article revisits these notable cases and developments and considers their implications for 2021.
Case law developments in 2020
Comparative advertising
In one of the first notable decisions of 2020, the Federal Court considered the legal limits to comparative advertising under the Competition Act and the Trademarks Act in
Introduction
In November 2020 the limitation fund established following the grounding of the Full City near Langesund in 2009 was finally distributed. The limitation fund proceedings, which ran parallel to the proceedings concerning the limitation fund established following the Server casualty in 2007, have helped to clarify several procedural aspects of limitation funds.
The Full City grounding caused a major oil spill, which led to:
a state-led clean-up operation;
civil claims for damages against the owners.(1)
This article examines the key takeaways from the limitation fund proceedings now that they have come to an end.
Club letters from International Group of P&I Clubs accepted as security
In its recent five-to-four split decision in
1688782 Ontario Inc v Maple Leaf Foods Inc,(1) the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the proposed class action brought by Mr Sub franchisees against Maple Leaf Foods for damages resulting from a listeria outbreak linked to Maple Leaf cold cuts. By ruling in favour of the supplier, the majority of the court found that no duty of care is owed by an exclusive supplier for purely economic losses suffered by franchisees with which the supplier has no direct contractual relationship.
While the court confirmed that the supplier owed a duty of care to the franchisees customers, who fortunately did not suffer any harm from the recalled products, it stopped short of finding that the supplier owed a duty of care to the franchisees given the lack of proximity between them and the fact that the damages were limited to pure economic losses due to reputational harm and an interruption in supply.
The Federal Tribunal recently rendered a decision in a dispute between a bank and its client, a company, with regard to a (discretionary) wealth management contract. The claimant sought damages from the bank for a loss relating to the performance of the contract. This decision serves as a reminder of the fundamental issues of substantive law and gives food for thought in terms of the legal and strategic approaches to resolving a conflict.
In December 2020 the new Licensing Code, which regulates renewable energy source (RES) production certificates, was published in the <i>Official Journal</i>. The code aims to implement the new RES licensing procedure and was published on the day on which the first submission round for the issuance of these certificates started. This last-minute regulation caused uncertainty for interested applicants regarding the application procedure and the required documents.