The United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision today in Halo Electronics Inc. v. Pulse Electronics Inc. relating to the ability of district courts to award treble damages in patent infringement proceedings, rejecting limits arising from Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit decisions.
CIPO Fees
CIPO has opened consultations on proposed fees for various steps under upcoming amended Patent and Trademark rules. These steps include fees per Nice Classifications and renewal fees for trademarks and correction, after-allowance amendments and late fees for patents. The consultation is open until July 5, 2016.
Patents and Competition
My recent column on the Canadian Competition Bureau’s new Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines, patent pooling, PAEs and standard-essential-patents as applied to tech patents, was published earlier this month.
Agents
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has announced consultations on the regulatory framework for patent and trademark agents.
Town Hall
At the Federal Court’s annual town hall held on May 12, 2016, the court provided an update and made some new announcements, including new Case Management Guidelines for NOC Applications.
Patent Volume in 2015
The number of patent applications published in 2015 or that entered national phase in Canada in 2015 was approximately the same as in 2014 at about 33,500 application. Smart & Biggar, Gowlings and BLG top the list of firms by volume of applications.
Trade Secrets
The United States has entered into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act, federal trade secrets legislation. The legislation creates a civil cause of action for the misappropriation of trade secrets.
NPEs
To what extent are non-practicing entities (NPEs – aka patent assertion entities or in some instances, patent trolls) operating and asserting patents in Canada? Please help me by completing a short survey on NPE activity in Canada. I’ll post the results in a few weeks. Thanks to those who have already completed the survey.
IPEGs
The Competition Bureau has released updated Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines. The guidelines are directed to the Bureau’s approach to investigating anti-competitive activities relating to intellectual property including settlements, particularly in PM(NOC) proceedings, price-fixing, patent pooling, product switching, patent assertion entities and standard essential patents.
Marrakesh Treaty
Bill C-11 entitled, “An Act to amend the Copyright Act (access to copyrighted works or other subject-matter for persons with perceptual disabilities)” was introduced today to implement the Marrakesh Treaty.