In Gold Line Telemanagement Inc. v. Ereele GmbH, 2025 FC 904, the Federal Court granted declaratory relief to the Plaintiffs on the basis that the Defendants had not established that certain works met the conditions for subsistence of copyright and that copyright was thus not enforceable against the Plaintiffs. The Plaintiffs operated a worldwide video streaming platform offering multicultural programming. The Defendants included an Austrian digital marketing company and an Iranian movie producer.

Beginning in 2020, the Defendants alleged that content on the Plaintiffs’ streaming platform infringed the Defendants’ copyright in a number of movies and television programs, all of which were produced in Iran. The Defendants also filed complaints with third party app stores alleging that the Plaintiffs’ streaming platform infringed copyright. As a result of these complaints, the Plaintiffs initiated these proceedings.

The Court held that, since the works at issue were produced in Iran, and Iran is not a treaty country for the purposes of the Copyright Act, copyright in the works was not enforceable in Canada as against the Plaintiffs.

The Plaintiffs also advanced a claim under section 7(a) of the Trademarks Act in respect of the complaints made by the Defendants to the app stores. That section prohibits the making of false and misleading statements tending to discredit the business, goods or services of a competitor. However, the Court held that the Plaintiffs failed to establish a causal link between the complaints and any damage suffered by the Plaintiffs.

Costs and disbursements of $76,600 were awarded to the Plaintiffs due to the Defendants’ failure to participate in the proceedings.

The decision can be found here.