I’m all for protecting intellectual property but this guy is simply a jerk. Councillor Robert Lutczyk of Oshawa and Durham has copyrighted the name University of Ontario of Institute of Technology and is now forbidding newspapers from using it. To make matters worse he’s also copyrighted the names Medical School in Oshawa and Medical School at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology neither which even exist (yet).

“I’d love to tell you, but I can’t,” the Ward 2 councillor said yesterday when asked why he registered the copyright. “I don’t know if you are aware of this, but I’m in litigation with Oshawa This Week.”

Lutczyk was referring to a lawsuit against the weekly newspaper published by Metroland, a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corp., which also owns the Star.

In an Oct. 28 email to Torstar, Lutczyk complained the weekly was aware of his copyright but “continues to infringe on my copyright without permission to do so.”

“I am now putting you on notice that I forbid you to print the phrase `University of Ontario Institute of Technology’ in any of your Metroland publications and in the Toronto Star under threat of further legal action.”
Source: TheStar

God I absolutely cannot stand this type of person, talk about the scum of the Earth. I hope he loses his lawsuit and that it sets a precedent, people cannot squat on an organization’s name because this is simply ridiculous.