There were a couple of decisions from the last several days that may be of interest:
AstraZeneca AB & Anor v KRKA dd Novo Mesto & Anor[2015] EWCA Civ 484 – The Court of Appeal in the UK upheld the award of £27 million damages in favour of a generic for an interim injunction that was ultimately dissolved for esomeprazole.
Garcia v. Google – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in an en banc decision (PDF), reversed its earlier panel decision and held that an actor in a controversial film was not entitled to a preliminary decision removing the film from YouTube on the basis that the law and facts did not clearly favour her claim to copyright and her showing of irreparable harm.
Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc. – The United States Supreme Court held that a defendant’s belief regarding patent invalidity is not a defence to an induced infringement claim.
Bill C-59, entitled An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 21, 2015 and other measures, was introduced today to implement portions of the budget. The proposed changes include amendments to:
Copyright Act – term of sound recording and performance rights;
Patent Act – privilege for patent agents, force majeure, correcting errors and other changes;
Trade-marks Act – privilege for trade-mark agents, force majeure, correcting errors;
Industrial Designs Act – force majeure, correcting errors.
The Honourable Richard Southcott has been appointed to the Federal Court. Previously, he was Vice President and General Counsel at Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax. Judicial appointments were also made today in Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Proposed amendments to the PM(NOC) Regulations have been published in the Canada Gazette Part I, relating to the listing of patents claiming single medicinal ingredients found in combination drugs. The government indicated its plans to make these amendments in the fall of 2014, following Court decisions in Gilead and Viiv.
The government has tabled the Marrakesh Treaty which allows copyrighted material to be adapted into accessible formats for the visually impaired. The implementation of this treaty was announced as part of the budget last week.
Today, as part of its budget announcement the government indicated its plans to amend the Patent Act, Trade-marks Act and Industrial Design Act to provide statutory privilege for confidential communications with agents and permit CIPO to extend deadlines in cases of force majeure. The government also plans to amend the Copyright Act to implement and accede to the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled and to extend the term of protection of sound recordings and performances for an additional 20 years.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Canada issued an oral judgment at the hearing of Sanofi’s appeal in the ramipril Section 8 proceeding, dismissing the appeal with costs.
On Monday, April 20th, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Sanofi-Aventis’ appeal in Apotex’s Ramipril proceeding pursuant to Section 8 of the Patented Medicine (Notice of Compliance Regulations). The appeal is from the March 2014 split decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in 2014 FCA 68 relating to among other things the ‘hypothetical world’, the ramp-up period and non-indicated uses.
Today, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments (link) on two patent cases:
Commil USA v. Cisco Systems (13-896) relating to whether a defendant’s belief that a patent is invalid is a defence to induced infringement; and
Kimble v. Marvel Enterprises (13-720) relating to whether the 1964 decision in Brulotte which held that “a patentee’s use of a royalty agreement that projects beyond the expiration date of the patent is unlawful per se“, should be overruled.
CIPO has updated its notice on its Forward Regulatory Plan, to indicate that publication of proposed changes to the Trade-mark Regulations(Accession to trademark treaties and modernization of Canada’s trademark regime), Industrial Design Regulations (Hague Agreement) and Patent Rules (Patent Law Treaty) for consultation in Canada Gazette, Part 1 is “expected late 2016”.
Canadian Intellectual Property
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