- Parties: The applicants were Lazare V.T. Boubala and Lazare’s BBQ House Inc. The respondents were Mussa Siddiqui Khwaja (a.k.a. Khwaja Siddiqui; a.k.a Khwaja Mussa Siddiqui) and African BBQ House.

- Subject Matter: The applicants’ notice of application invoked the Copyright Act, 1985 and the Trademarks Act, 1985. The applicants alleged that the respondents infringed their copyrights with respect to the menu of “Lazare’s BBQ House” and the photographs of Lazare V.T. Boubala’s dishes for the use of the first restaurant that they opened in Ottawa and infringed their common law trademark rights by essentially using the restaurant concept that Boubala had designed for the first restaurant, including with the outdoor and indoor signage of “African BBQ House” and its menus.

- Ruling: The court ruled in the respondents’ favour and dismissed the application. The court concluded that the new Boubala affidavit dated Nov. 16, 2022 was inadmissible; that the new reliefs requested in the applicants’ memorandum were not ancillary to the reliefs in the notice of application; and that the new reliefs sought were improperly before the court and could not be entertained.

- Date: The hearing was set on Apr. 4, 2023. The court released its decision on May 10, 2023.

- Venue: This was a federal case before the Federal Court.

- Amount: The court ordered the applicants to jointly and severally pay the respondents costs for a total amount of $54,372.21, inclusive of all fees, disbursements, and taxes.