Amendments to the Federal Courts Rules, primarily to update the Tariff B regime for cost awards, are coming into force later this month. The amendments introduce a new Tariff B that has three columns, more litigation steps and more units. The Rules Committee estimates it will increase cost awards by about 25% “thereby aligning the tariff more closely with the amounts typically awarded under the ‘lump sum’ approach” and provide a “more consistent and predictable regime.” The changes also replace remaining references to “Prothonotary” with “Associate Judge”. Continue reading Federal Courts Rules
Category Archives: Daily Alert
Patent Term Adjustment
As of today, patentees who have obtained patents granted after December 1, 2025 can request additional term. A new Chapter 32 in MOPOP addresses the procedures for requesting additional patent term.
Patentable Subject Matter
The webcast from the October 9th Supreme Court of Canada hearing in Pharmascience Inc. v. Janssen Inc. on patentability of methods of medical treatment is now available online.
CIPO
The Patent Office has announced a maintenance outage of the MyCIPO Patents portal both this weekend (4pm ET Friday to 10pm ET Sunday) and next weekend (8pm ET Friday to 4pm ET Sunday).
Budget
The government released its Budget 2025 today. Some intellectual property related items include: immediate expensing of productivity-enhancing assets including patents; extensions to the Elevate IP program, the Innovation Asset Collective’s Patent Collective and the IP Assist Program; modernization the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board; and amendments to the Copyright Act to create an Artist’s Resale Right.
Federal Court
Chief Justice Paul Crampton is retiring this week from the Federal Court after 16 years with the Federal Court and 14 years as Chief Justice. Associate Chief Justice Martine St-Louis will serve as Acting Chief Justice of the Federal Court effective October 31, 2025. Continue reading Federal Court
Proceeedings
The Federal Court has opened a large number of ‘reserved’ matters which are listed below, along with a few actual proceedings. These are usually populated earlier in the year rather than at the end of October.
Proceeedings
Several matters started earlier this year were missed from the email alerts, including several IP proceedings. These missed IP proceeding are included below. Continue reading Proceeedings
Patentable Subject Matter
The Supreme Court of Canada is hearing arguments in Pharmascience Inc. v. Janssen Inc. tomorrow, October 9th on the patentability of methods of medical treatment. The Supreme Court indicates that hearing will not be broadcast live but copies of the factums for the parties and interveners are available.
IPIC Annual
I’ll be attending the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) annual conference later this week and presenting on some of the top patent cases over the last year on a panel with Mat Brechtel, Amélie Béliveau and moderator Tamara Ramsey. Let me know if you will be at the conference.