This weekend the ‘first-to-file’ rules come into force in the United States as part of the America Invents Act implementation. Among other things, the new rules affect the significance of the date of invention and the scope of prior art citable against applications.
Do you have a “computer problem”?
CIPO has issued practice guidance to patent examiners on patentable subject matter (PN2013-02) and the examination of computer-implemented inventions (PN2013-03) following the November 2011 decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. Amazon.com Inc. 2011 FCA 328.
Government introduces anti-counterfeiting legislation
Bill C-56, the Combating Counterfeit Products Act, was introduced today with amendments to the Copyright Act and Trade-marks Act, to among other things, allow the Canada Border Services Agency to detain suspected shipments and act on requests from rights holders. It will also “expand the scope of what can be registered as a trade-mark, allow the Registrar of Trade-marks to correct errors that appear in the trade-mark register, and streamline and modernize the trade-mark application and opposition process.”
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E-Filing in the Federal Court
The Federal Court has issued a revised Notice to the Profession on electronic service and filing of documents. Starting on March 1, 2013, the Federal Court will be using its own system for electronic filing, replacing the LexisNexis system used since 2009.
Amendments to Federal Courts Rules
Amendments have been made to the Federal Courts Rules relating to scheduling of general sittings, format of documents, notices of appearances in applications, increasing minimum lead time to file motion materials, and other “miscellaneous” amendments.
Judicial Appointments
In an announcement today, the Honourable Justice David Near was elevated from the Federal Court to the Federal Court of Appeal and the Honourable Justice Peter Annis of the Ontario Superior Court was appointed to the Federal Court. Judicial appointments were also made today in Ontario, Newfoundland & Labrador, Alberta and Quebec.
Top Canadian Patentees for 2012
Research In Motion tops the list of owners receiving the most Canadian patents during 2012. The others in the top five were Qualcomm, P&G, Schlumberger and LG Electronics. Approximately 20,000 Canadian patents were granted last year.
Canadian Trademark Firms for 2012
As mentioned earlier this month, about 50,000 trademark applications were filed in Canada in 2012. Of these, about 20% were filed in-house or without an agent (about the same as in 2011). Gowlings, Smart & Biggar and Bereskin & Parr were the firms that filed the most trademark applications. Check out my list of the 50 firms/agents that filed the most applications in 2012.
Top Trademark Filers for 2012
Just over 50,000 trademarks were filed in Canada last year. Procter & Gamble and L’Oreal tied with over 200 new trademark application filed in 2012 and Target Brands broke into the top five.
Changes to Health Canada Generics Screening Process
The Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada has published an updated screening criteria for processing ANDS and SANDS pre-market submissions to replace the Integrated Review Process along with an attestation checklist required for submissions made after February 1, 2013.
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