The Supreme Court of Canada heard oral arguments today on Eli Lilly’s application for leave to appeal in its olanzapine patent infringement proceeding where its selection patent was found invalid for lacking utility under the ‘promise doctrine’ by the lower courts, with a decision expected this Thursday. US recently listed Canada on its IP ‘watch list’, highlighting concern with Canada’s “heightened utility requirements for patents that Canadian courts have been adopting recently.”
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Category Archives: Daily Alert
En banc Patentable subject matter
Earlier today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released its en banc decision in CLS Bank International v. Alice Corporation on the patentability of computer related inventions. The panel of ten judges wrote seven sets of reasons but a majority affirmed the lower court decision that the asserted system, method and computer-readable media claims were not directed to eligible subject matter.
Website Outages
Both the Federal Court and CIPO websites have scheduled outages this weekend. The Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal announced that their website, email and e-filing will be unavailable from Friday night to Sunday morning. CIPO’s deposit accounts and some e-commerce services will be unavailable from Friday afternoon to Monday morning.
UK enacts “Instagram Act”
Last week, the UK parliament enacted legislation directed to the licensing of orphan works. Regulations will be introduced later to address the details of the scheme.
Judicial Appointments
The Honourable Glennys L. McVeigh was appointed today to the Federal Court. She was a senior counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in Saskatoon. Judicial appointments were also made today in Ontario and Quebec.
Access Copyright and Fair Dealing
Today’s litigation started against York University listed below is apparently one part of three measures started today by Access Copyright: a) the litigation in the Federal Court challenging York University’s fair dealing guidelines; b) an application with the Copyright Board for an interim elementary and secondary school education tariff; and c) a proposed post‐secondary tariff also filed with the Copyright Board for 2014-2017.
Federal Court Prothonotary Compensation
Earlier this year, the Honourable J. Douglas Cunningham, Q.C., was named the special advisor on Federal Court Prothonotaries’ Compensation to complete a report by the end of May 2013. He is inviting comments from the public until April 19, 2013 and public hearings are scheduled for May 1 and 2, 2013.
India Supreme Court says Gleevec not inventive
India’s highest court has ruled that the beta crystalline form of Imatinib Mesylate (Gleevec/Glivec) is not inventive because of features found in the known alpha crystalline form. The judgment includes a discussion of changes to patent legislation, the Indian pharmaceutical industry and compliance with TRIPs.
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isoHunt found to infringe
The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld summary judgment against isoHunt, a Canada based BitTorrent search engine, for contributory copyright infringement.
First Sale Doctrine
A majority of the United States Supreme Court upheld the application of the first sale doctrine to internationally published material in a decision released today, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.