Nothing to See Here: How coercive control hides in plain sight – from states to households
By Natascha Ibowski | January 12, 2026 When powerful states act in secrecy and justify it afterward as “necessary,” the problem is not a lack of intelligence. It is a failure of attention. Recent developments on the stage of global affairs got me thinking about how the current climate reveals an all too familiar pattern: […]
Coping with the “Not Inherently Distinctive” Objection in the Canada Trademarks Act
By Julius Melnitzer | January 8, 2026 The NID objection is seen as a unique barrier to doing business in Canada – Elliott Gold Since the 2019 wholesale amendments to Canada’s Trademarks Act introduced the “not inherently distinctive” (NID) objection to trademark (TM) registration, which gave examiners the power to adjudicate distinctiveness at the prosecution stage, it has […]
It is Okay to Put Up With Some Injustice
By Murray Gottheil | January 5, 2026 [Note from Murray: Many of my readers are younger professionals. They may not be crazy about the content of this article. In my defense, I can be a curmudgeon sometimes, but that does not necessarily invalidate my old-fashioned opinions!] After much thought, I have concluded that young people should […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Minimum wage overtakes Legal Aid rates | ICE keeps immigration lawyer watch list | Criminal jury trials on the way out? | Bees awarded legal rights | Legal author’s life imitates art
By Julius Melnitzer | January 4, 2026 RATES HIT NEW BOTTOM FOR LEGAL AID LAWYERS $193.20 for 15 hours: that’s what the UK government paid an experienced lawyer for publicly-funded family law work. And according to a recent Bar Council report, that news doesn’t come close to revealing the personal cost of taking on legal […]
Lawyering lessons at Santa’s knee
By Marcel Strigberger · December 27, 2025 Until a recent experience at my local Tim Hortons, I did not know that there were striking similarities between judges and Santa Clauses. I was sipping my medium double-double when I overhead a group of young children at an adjacent table. They sounded a lot like lawyers sizing up judges at […]
AI-Driven Trademark Searches: A Necessity Turned Weaponry?
By Julius Melnitzer | December 22, 2025 “More things are becoming potentially discoverable in trademark searches, and faster, because of how interconnected we are and how much we live our lives, and conduct our commerce, over the internet” — Tamara Céline Winegust Artificial intelligence (AI) is turning trademark (TM) watching from a tedious necessity to a strategic […]
Art & IP Law in the Digital Age
By Julius Melnitzer | December 21, 2025 “The digital age simply provides a new context for traditional IP questions around authorship, originality, ownership, and the fair use of art” — Eloise Calder In an increasingly digital world, technologies like generative AI have made efficiency key, amplifying the desire for instant gratification and shortening attention spans – […]
How to take the (second) guesswork out of lawyering
By Marcel Strigberger | December 4, 2025 Hey, Your Honour, I can see what’s under your wig. Actually, this talent is not that farfetched. AI is getting us there. I’ve recently heard about apps that transform curated collections of judicial orders, thereby giving lawyers an idea of how judges rule in different scenarios. Are the […]
Whose Client is it Anyway?
Photo by Ogo Johnson: at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | December 3, 2025 The people who make the most money in law firms are not necessarily the smartest lawyers, or the most strategic lawyers, or even the highest-billing lawyers. It’s the lawyers who bring in clients who rake in the largest slice of the profit pie. […]
True legal library confessions: Much overdue about nothing
By Marcel Strigberger | December 1, 2025 Did I commit a crime? If so, I want to come clean. Which gets me to a book entitled The Law of Horses, Including the Law of Innkeepers, Veterinary Surgeons, &c., by one George Henry Hewitt Oliphant. Shortly after being called to the Bar in the mid-1970s, I borrowed the […]