I’ve prepared a chart showing the twenty year ‘life cycle’ of the approximately 30,000 patent applications filed in 1992 and expired in 2012 from filing and examination to grant and abandonment. While approximately 13,000 applications (about 45%) resulted in issued patents, only about 4,000 were still in force after 20 years.
All posts by Alan Macek
Dovden Investments Impeachment Action
For those following the patent infringement actions started by Dovden Investments Ltd. over the last couple of years, an impeachment action was started yesterday by the Canadian Urban Transit Association (PDF). Dovden Investments has started approximately one third of all patent infringement actions in Canada during the past year.
Prothonotaries
The Federal Court has advertised for people interested in being selected as a Prothonotary. In other Prothonotary news, the Special Advisor to the Minister of Justice released his report last week containing recommendations for Prothonotary compensation.
Enforcement Provisions
The Federal Court has posted a discussion paper on proposed changes to the Federal Courts Rules regarding enforcement provisions, including issuing writs, garnishments and enforcement of domestic arbitral awards. The Rules Committee invites comments from counsel who use these rules.
WIPO treaty for the blind
Negotiators have adopted the “Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or otherwise Print Disabled”. The Treaty addresses making copyright protected literary works available to the visually impaired. It will enter into force after it has been ratified by 20 WIPO members that agree to be bound by its provisions.
Patent Volume in 2012
The number of patent applications published in 2012 or that entered national phase in Canada in 2012 was down slightly from 2011 at about 33,874. Smart & Biggar, Gowlings and BLG top the list of firms by volume of applications for 2012.
Old Act Patents
I’ve updated my list of recently issued “Old Act” patents – three issued so far in 2013. These were filed prior to October 1989 but can expire 17 years from this year’s issue date.
Reverse Payments
The United States Supreme Court issued a decision today in FTC v. Actavis, Inc. considering the legality of ‘reverse payment’ patent settlements particularly under the Hatch-Waxman Act. A majority held that such settlements are not presumptively illegal, nor immune from antitrust attack.
Isolated DNA
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that isolated DNA is not patentable subject matter but cDNA is patentable in Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. et al.
Sildenafil patent not “void”
The Supreme Court of Canada has varied its decision in Teva Canada Ltd. v. Pfizer Canada Inc., 2012 SCC 60 to remove references to the patent being ‘invalid’ or ‘void’ and instead referred to Teva’s allegations of invalidity in the PM(NOC) application being established.