As part of coming into force of amendments to the Patent Act and the Patent Rules on October 30th, the new version of the Manual of Patent Office Practice was published today. Continue reading MOPOP
All posts by Alan Macek
Crown Copyright
Earlier today, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its decision in Keatley Surveying Ltd. v. Teranet Inc., 2019 SCC 43, with the Court finding that the copyright in the plans of survey digitized, stored and copied by Ontario’s service provider, Teranet, vested in the Crown pursuant to s.12 of the Copyright Act.
IP and insolvency
As published in the Canada Gazette last week, amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) relating to IP licenses when the IP licensor becomes insolvent, will come into force November 1, 2019. These amendments were included in Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2 (Bill C-86). I discussed these amendments in my recent article for Slaw, Intellectual Property Licenses in Bankruptcy Scenarios.
Federal Court
The Federal Court has published a consultation on its 2020-2025 Strategic Plan and is seeking comments until September 13, 2019. The consultation asks what should be the Court’s priorities, including on digitization as well as a reflection on its previous strategic plan.
College
Earlier today, the members of the new board for the new College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents were announced. Jeffrey Astle, Karima Bawa, Thomas G. Conway, Ruth McHugh and Douglas B. Thompson will serve as directors. See earlier posts on seeking candidates and Bill C-86.
Patented Medicines
The final amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations have been published, coming into force July 1, 2020. The regulations relate to the factors and procedures to be considered by the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board. Continue reading Patented Medicines
IP Strategy
Earlier today, the government announced details on three aspects of its IP Strategy (see April 2018 post). This included the Patent Collective pilot program (“$30 million to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in the data-driven clean technology sector with their IP needs”), ExploreIP (tool to “help Canadian entrepreneurs and businesses access valuable publicly owned IP”), and IP Legal Clinics grants (UOttawa, the UWindsor, YorkU and the UdeM will “receive grants to develop or expand their IP legal clinic resources”). Continue reading IP Strategy
Patent Law Treaty
Yesterday, Canada deposited the instrument of ratification of the Patent Law Treaty. This follows publication of the Patent Rules and the announcement of the coming into force date of October 30, 2019. Continue reading Patent Law Treaty
Website
The IPPractice.ca website is now working again. This week it has been inaccessible due to a network problem which has meant that most of the links in the emails were not working. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please let me know if you notice anything still not working.
Patent Amendments
The new Patent Rules, coming into force on October 30, 2019, have been published in the Canada Gazette Part II. The modernization of the Patent Act and Rules allows Canada to ratify the Patent Law Treaty. Key changes relate to filing requirements, priority claims, agent representation and register, examination and amendments, corrections, abandonments/reinstatements, transfers, due care/third party rights, and divisionals. Continue reading Patent Amendments