The Honourable Yvan Roy and The Honourable Cecily Y. Strickland have been appointed to the Federal Court effective today. Justice Roy was a lawyer with the Government of Canada, Privy Council Office, in Ottawa and Justice Strickland was a lawyer with Stewart McKelvey in St. John’s practicing maritime law, environmental law and administrative law.
All posts by Alan Macek
Pay-for-carriage
The Supreme Court of Canada issued its decision in Reference re Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-167 and Broadcasting Order CRTC 2010-168, 2012 SCC 68. The majority (5-4 split) held that the CRTC’s ‘value-for-signal’ policy empowering private local television stations to negotiate direct compensation for retransmission of signals by cable and satellite companies was ultra vires.
EU Unitary Patent
The European Parliament has passed the EU unitary patent rules. The three packages passed today relate to the unitary patent, the language regime and the unified patent court. The new rules come into force on January 1, 2014 or after thirteen contracting states ratify it, provided that UK, France and Germany are among them.
Eli Lilly Challenges Patent Law
Eli Lilly has filed a “Notice of Intent” to challenge the ‘promise doctrine’ in Canadian patent law through NAFTA. The focus of the statement is on the law of the ‘promise’ of a patent in determining patent validity whether it complies with Canada’s obligations under TRIPs and NAFTA.
Patented Medicine Prices Review Board
New rules on procedure and practice before the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board were published in the Canada Gazette today to codify existing procedures.
Myriad Genetics going to the US Supreme Court
This afternoon, the United States Supreme Court announced that it will hear the appeal in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics on a single question: “Are human genes patentable?”
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Patent Agent Exam
The deadline for applying for the Canadian Patent Agent Exam is November 30, 2012. This is likely the last year for the patent agent exam under the current rules before new regulations applicable to the patent and trade-mark agent exams come into force.
Justice Létourneau
Justice Létourneau of the Federal Court of Appeal is retiring and has tendered his resignation effective December 31, 2012.
Federal Court of Appeal on Inventive Concept
In a decision released Friday, the Federal Court of Appeal held that inventive concept is a question of law and application judges should look to determinations of inventive concept made in prior proceedings.
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Patentable Subject Matter
Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the Federal Court of Appeal’s Amazon.com decision on patentable subject matter. There are reports that new CIPO Practice Notices on patentable subject matter will be issued after Christmas.