On June 26th, the Federal Court of Appeal released an updated Consolidated Practice Direction with changes directed to proof of service including service by email; and the style of citations/footnotes. The consolidated practice notice was originally released in 2023 and updated last year.
All posts by Alan Macek
PMPRB
The Patented Medicines Prices Review Board (PMPRB) has published its Administrative Process for Excessive Price Hearing Recommendation (effective January 2026) after years of consultation. From the announcement, “The new Guidelines explain the new two-step process used by PMPRB staff to monitor and review drug prices by comparing the prices in other countries or to other similar treatments in Canada.”
Outage
Unfortunately, there was a significant server outage last week on the system that supports this website and the daily email service. I’m still working on getting things back online. In the meantime, some aspects of the website may not be fully operational. Thanks for your patience! Continue reading Outage
Federal Court
The Federal Court has issued Amended Consolidated General Practice Guidelines. Some changes identified include ending the ability to file by email (except in limited circumstances) [s19]; mandatory bookmarks for PDF files [s19e]; personal service and proof of service [s31, 34, 35]; access to court files [s37-39]; determination of motions in writing [s45-50]; and publication of decisions [s88-90].
TMOB
The Trademark Opposition Board has issued a practice notice requiring a “Declaration of use of AI” when “generative AI is used to create content in a document”. A couple of decisions have identified hallucinated decisions cited in submissions – see 2024 TMOB 150 and 2024 TMOB 211.
Judges’ Dinner
I’m looking forward to catching up with friends and colleagues at the CBA IP Day and Judges’ Dinner in Ottawa this week. Some stats from the Federal Court for discussion:
- from 2019 to 2024 the number of filings went from 2095 (390 or 18.6% of which were IP-related) to 3521 (289 or 8.2% were IP-related)
- in 2019 there were 9 IP trials with 55 trial days, and in 2024 there were 7 IP trials with 54 trial days. So far in 2025, there have been 5 IP trials and 65 trial days.
Federal Court
The Federal Court has updated its FAQ on how to request copies of court documents and now has a dedicated email address for these requests – see FAQ. Some documents are available for download directly from the docket listings – see my docket browser tool.
CIPO
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has announced an infrastructure upgrade and that all e-commerce applications will be unavailable from Friday, March 14 at 4 pm (ET) until Monday, March 17 at 6 am (ET).
Appointments
Darren Thorne, Member, Refugee Appeal Division, at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in Toronto, and Andrew J. Brouwer, Senior Counsel, Refugee Law Office, at Legal Aid Ontario in Toronto were appointed Judges of the Federal Court. Appointments were also made today to the courts in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.
Appointments
Danielle Ferron, Partner at Langlois Lawyers LLP in Montréal, was appointed a Judge of the Federal Court. Appointments were also made today in British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario, and the Tax Court.