The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) launched a new ad campaign aimed at improving public behaviour on public transit. The “You said it” ads feature a tweet from a TTC rider complaining about bags on seats, loud music and other minor transit annoyances, all printed on a stylized and angular ribbon. Below the tweet, the tag line “You said it” and the TTC logo appeared in each advertisement.

In April 2018, guerilla ads appeared in some subway stations that were very similar in appearance to the “You said it” ads. However, the tweets complaining about other riders were replaced with tweets criticizing the TTC for poor services, high fares and the like.

These posters caught our eye because of the obvious copyright and trademark implications. The TTC logo was used on the posters and the whole style of the posters was copied. These posters were obviously parodies of the original advertisements. Rather than criticizing fellow riders for poor behaviour, the posters criticized the TTC for providing poor transit service. Because the parody posters were not used for a commercial purpose, but rather were displayed to make a statement, it is possible that the creators of the poster could use parody as a defence.

This case bears some similarities to the Bibendum case, where union workers made up a leaflet featuring a design where the Michelin Man is about to crush a worker. Although the union attempted to argue that their use of the Michelin Man or Bibendum should not be held to be infringing of the plaintiff’s copyright or trademark rights, they were not successful. After the Bibendum case, in 2012, amendments to the Copyright Act added parody as a defense to copyright infringement. There is still no defense of parody for trademark infringement in the Trademarks Act.

Fortunately for the creators of these transit posters, who were revealed to be art students who made the posters for a class assignment, the TTC ignored the intellectual property issues and instead threatened the students with a maximum $235 fine.