The number of patent applications published in 2012 or that entered national phase in Canada in 2012 was down slightly from 2011 at about 33,874. Smart & Biggar, Gowlings and BLG top the list of firms by volume of applications for 2012.
Tag Archives: Canadian Intellectual Property Office
Old Act Patents
I’ve updated my list of recently issued “Old Act” patents – three issued so far in 2013. These were filed prior to October 1989 but can expire 17 years from this year’s issue date.
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.
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.
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.
Patent Agent Exam
The deadline for applying for the Canadian Patent Agent Exam is November 30, 2012. This is likely the last year for the patent agent exam under the current rules before new regulations applicable to the patent and trade-mark agent exams come into force.
Patentable Subject Matter
Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the Federal Court of Appeal’s Amazon.com decision on patentable subject matter. There are reports that new CIPO Practice Notices on patentable subject matter will be issued after Christmas.
Final Action Practice
The Canadian Patent Office has posted proposed revisions to the Manual of Patent Office Practice (MOPOP) chapter relating to Final Action Practice. The proposed changes relate to the proposed amendments to the Patent Rules on Final Actions published last week.