Yesterday, the government introduced Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act directed to the regulation of “online undertakings” as a class of broadcasting undertakings.
All posts by Alan Macek
Patents
The hearing of an appeal from the Patent Appeal Board on patentable subject matter in Benjamin Moore & Co. (Re), 2020 CACP 15 has been scheduled for March 30, 2022. IPIC is intervening.
Also, CIPO has announced it will be joining WIPO’s DAS (Digital Access Service) for patent priority documents as of February 1, 2022.
Federal Courts Rules
Amendments to the Federal Courts Rules come into force today – see earlier post. The amendments relate to i) limited scope representation; ii) enforcement of orders; and iii) a series of miscellaneous amendments including to Rule 3.
Competition Bureau
The Competition Bureau and Health Canada’s Health Product and Food Branch (HPFB) announced a collaboration focused on affordable medicines. The announcement focused on generic companies obtaining samples of the branded drug required to develop and support the regulatory authorization of their generic medicine.
Intellectual Property Ontario
Ontario has created “Intellectual Property Ontario”, a new agency directed to among other things “increase public access to services and resources in respect of intellectual property in order to advance economic growth and competitiveness in Ontario” by supporting development and protection of IP, partnering with educational institutions and providing recommendations to the government. Continue reading Intellectual Property Ontario
Patent Appeal Board
CIPO has announced it is continuing and expanding its procedure to refer final rejections of patent applications to a single member of the PAB in certain circumstances if the rejection only relates to patentable subject matter (with some exceptions), s27(4) and the Patent Rules. CIPO is working to “increase efficiencies and reduce turnaround times” at the PAB. The 2019-2020 Annual Report identified 71 appeals to the PAB and 41 decisions issued.
Fee Decrease
CIPO has reminded applicants that as of January 1st, many service fees have decreased by 0.2% due to fee adjustments under the Service Fees Act. As a result, the fees listed in Schedules to the Regulations may no longer be current so online resources should be consulted for the current fees. Continue reading Fee Decrease
Happy New Year
Thank you for another year with IPPractice. In 2021, I’ve sent out 461,000 emails to over 2100 subscribers. I have included reports on 200 IP-related decisions and over 350 new IP-proceedings. Happy New Year! Continue reading Happy New Year
Patented Medicines
In what is becoming a holiday tradition, the coming into force of amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations has been again delayed by six months. The amendments were scheduled to come into force on January 1, 2022 having previously been scheduled for July 2021, January 2021, and July 2020 (see earlier post). The amendments generally relate to factors to be considered by the PMPRB for pricing patented medicines.
Federal Courts Rules
As mentioned last week, amendments to the Federal Courts Rules are being made, and were published in the Canada Gazette today for:
- miscellaneous changes including expansion to Rule 3 to focus on ‘outcome’ and proportionality rather than ‘determination’, explicit powers to limit examinations (rule 87.1) and a rule specifically for motions in writing at the Federal Court of Appeal (rule 369.2), among other things.
- enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards.
- limited-scope representation.