The big news in IP law is the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on parallel importing. Kraft had the exclusive right to sell Toblerone bars in Canada. They sued to stop another party from importing them from Europe. The basis was copyright in the packaging.

The court decided against Kraft. The IP bar is buzzing about the decision mainly because the reasons behind it are not totally clear. It was a 7 to 2 decision – nothing odd about that. But the majority rendered 3 separate reasons, all deciding on different priciples. That makes it hard to determine what the law really is on the subject.

I’ll avoid the obvious bad comments like – it was a dark day for Kraft – or – mountains of evidence against Kraft – or – Kraft not crafty enough for SCC – or – SCC serves tasty treat for importers – or – SCC expresses different tastes for Toblerone ….

For more detail take a look at Howard Knopf’s comment in his Excess Copyright blog. He was involved in the case.