Canada's largest wireless carriers and largest cable operator win important intellectual property case before Federal Court of Appeal

On May 14, 2010, the Federal Court of Appeal issued its decision relating to whether or not musical "previews" available on the Internet qualify for the "research" fair dealing exception under section 29 of the Copyright Act and are therefore not an infringement of copyright. In this regard, the Federal Court upheld the Copyright Board's decision dated October 18, 2007 relating to SOCAN Tariff 22A that such previews are not subject to copyright payments Gerald (Jay) Kerr-Wilson of Fasken Martineau successfully represented Canada's largest wireless carriers (Rogers, Telus and Bell) and the largest cable operator (Shaw) in the proceeding.