Sylvain Laporte, Commissioner of Patents and Registrar of Trade-marks has been appointed President of the Canadian Space Agency, effective March 9, 2015.
Judicial Appointments
Honourable Justice Rennie has been elevated to the Federal Court of Appeal. Also today, Honourable Denis Gascon has been appointed to the Federal Court. Gascon was formerly with Norton Rose Fulbright Canada in Montreal practising in the area of competition law and international trade regulations.
Amendments to Plant Breeders’ Rights Act
Changes to the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act received royal assent today. The legislation, Bill C-18, An Act to amend certain Acts relating to agriculture and agri-food, includes changes addressing the duration, scope and exceptions to the rights under the Act.
Federal Court Modernization
The Federal Courts Rules have been amended to remove obstacles to greater use of technology by the court. Among other things, the changes permit the registry to maintain an official electronic record, clarifying electronic service, amend the definition of ‘document’ and permit electronic filing. Also, the Federal Court has published a Notice to the Profession regarding obtaining copies from the digital audio recording system used at hearings.
NAFTA Arbitration
The government has posted its counter memorial regarding Eli Lilly’s NAFTA arbitration of Canada’s ‘promise utility doctrine’. The next phase, according to the proceeding’s schedule, is the production of documents.
Judicial Appointments
The Honourable Richard Bell, formerly of the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick, has been appointed to the Federal Court. Appointments were also made to the Tax Court, Nova Scotia courts, Court of Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick, and Ontario Superior Court.
Canadian Trademark Firms in 2014
About 50,400 trademark applications were filed in Canada in 2014. Of these, about 20% were filed in-house or without an agent (about the same as in the last couple of years). Gowlings, Bereskin & Parr and Smart & Biggar were the firms that filed the most trademark applications. Check out my list of the 50 firms/agents that filed the most applications in 2014.
Top Patentees in Canada 2014
BlackBerry tops the list once again for receiving the most Canadian patents in the past year. The others in the top five for 2014 were Qualcomm, P&G, General Electric and Schlumberger. Approximately 23,000 Canadian patents were granted last year to approximately 9500 applicants.
Claim Construction
Today, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Teva v. Sandoz regarding the standard of review on claim construction. A majority held that rather than a de novo review, the Court of Appeals must review claim construction for ‘clear error’.
Biologics
For those following the proceeding between AbbVie and Jansen relating to Stelara, the Court docket indicates a settlement was reached and today the Court issued an order that all claims and counterclaims be dismissed with prejudice. In October, the Federal Court of Appeal had set aside the trial decision and ordered a new trial.