Cross-Border & Canadian Business Blog
Exploring cross-border business opportunities and trends.
Lightbulbs, bike gears, corkscrews, drilling rigs, TV towers, computer chips, medicine, and cleaning supplies. That’s the kind of stuff patents are for, right? Patents are only applied-for by those white-coated toilers frowning at lab benches, by those strange tinkerers in their dusty garages, and by those hoody-clad Silicon Valley campus-dwellers carting their chaotic circuit boards, …
Continue reading “Financial Product Differentiation Using Patents – A Canadian Example (Part 1)”
Highlights In general, a supplier’s obligation is to ensure the safety of its goods to the end consumer. A supplier does not owe a duty of care to other commercial parties in a supply chain. Courts are reluctant to recognize that commercial parties in a chain of contracts are provided additional rights outside of a …
Continue reading “SUB-PAR CLAIM: FRANCHISEE’S BEEF WITH SUPPLIER LEAVES BAD TASTE”
Now that the first anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic is here and there is hope that there will not be a second based on vaccinations, here is an HR Check List that employers should consider as our economy will be re-opening: Ontario employers are required by law to have the following workplace policies: an Accessibility …
On March 1, 2021, new public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 went into effect in Ontario. These measures represent the Government of Ontario moving multiple public health regions to new levels of its COVID-19 Response Framework. Simcoe Muskoka District and Thunder Bay District move back to the grey zone (lockdown) due to …
Continue reading “UPDATE (March 1, 2021) – New COVID-19 Public Health Measures in Effect in Ontario”
Given the ongoing pandemic, many purchasers are unable to pay their vendors for products they received. Many vendors have tried their best to accommodate these purchasers by delaying payment dates or entering into payment plans. But what happens if the purchaser never pays? How much time does the vendor have to sue the purchaser for …
Introduction On November 17, 2020, Canada’s federal government introduced a bill to enact new legislation to strengthen protections for individuals from privacy loss due to the failures and limitations of corporate consumer privacy measures. The proposed legislation, known as the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (“CPPA”), would be the first major overhaul of Canada’s privacy law …
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently upheld a gift made to beneficiaries under a will, despite the assets being owned by a corporation, and not the deceased himself. This is an important decision that will affect estate planning and will construction. In particular, testamentary gifts that may previously have failed may now be valid. In …
Continue reading “Trezzi v. Trezzi: Can You Gift Assets You Do Not Own?”
In my previous blog (Volume 1, Number 2), I discussed the importance of reading contracts before signing them. As a refresher, if you sign a contract, you are generally bound by the terms of the contract even if you had not read the terms of the contract before you signed it. While this advice is …
On September 29, 2020, the Government of Canada imposed sanctions on several officials representing the Government of Belarus under the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA), including Belarusian President Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko. According to Government Affairs Canada, the sanctions are part of a broader diplomatic effort in the wake of “a systematic campaign of repression and …
On June 17, 2020, the Court of Appeal for Ontario released its decision in Waksdale v. Swegon North America Inc., (“Waksdale”) 2020 ONCA 391, delivering a seismic victory for employees, upending decades of practice in drafting employment agreements, and sending companies scrambling to bring their agreements into compliance with the new reality. Drafting Employment Contracts before Waksdale …