The United States Supreme Court issued several decisions yesterday that may be of interest:
Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google LLC – social media companies are not liable for terrorist attacks by hosting accounts from terrorists: “To impose aiding-and-abetting liability for passive nonfeasance, plaintiffs must make a strong showing of assistance and scienter. Plaintiffs fail to do so.”
Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith – copyright fair use does not cover Warhol’s use of a photograph by Goldsmith to create a silkscreen portrait of Prince -> “the purpose of the Orange Prince image is substantially the same as that of Goldsmith’s original photograph. Both are portraits of Prince used in magazines to illustrate stories about Prince.”
Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi – patent enablement -> “Amgen’s claims sweep much broader than the 26 exemplary antibodies it identifies by their amino acid sequences. Amgen has failed to enable all that it has claimed, even allowing for a reasonable degree of experimentation
Today, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Nova Chemicals Corp. v. Dow Chemical Co., 2022 SCC 43 regarding the quantification of an accounting of profits as a result of patent infringement. The majority dismissed the appeal with a focus on the ‘non-infringing option’: “a non-infringing option helps courts isolate the profits causally attributable to the invention from the profits which arose at the same time the infringing product was used or sold, but which are not causally attributable to the invention.” The majority also upheld springboard profits, saying, “a portion of such post-expiry profits may be causally attributable to infringement of the invention.” Continue reading Supreme Court→
A couple of developments in Europe that may be of interest: 1) The long awaited United Patent Court is scheduled to open its doors and accept cases as of April 1, 2023; and 2) the EPO is abolishing the “10-day rule” for responding to deadlines, effectively reducing the time available to respond.
The hearing of an appeal from the Patent Appeal Board on patentable subject matter in Benjamin Moore & Co. (Re), 2020 CACP 15 has been scheduled for March 30, 2022. IPIC is intervening.
Also, CIPO has announced it will be joining WIPO’s DAS (Digital Access Service) for patent priority documents as of February 1, 2022.
CIPO has announced a new patent national entry request online tool. According to the announcement, one the application is submitted and the fees paid, you will instantly receive a national entry date and Canadian patent application number. Continue reading CIPO→
In 2020, approximately 21,300 patents were granted by the Canadian Patent Office, down slightly from 2019. Halliburton Energy Services was again the top recipient of patents. The other top applicants were The Boeing Company, General Electric Company, BASF and Becton, Dickinson and Company. Continue reading Top Patentees 2020→
Proposed amendments to the Patent Rules are published for consultation in the Canada Gazette to address patent term adjustment and other changes to streamline prosecution. The proposed amendments include excess claim fees, limits on office actions and requests for continued examination, updating rules on sequence listings and some miscellaneous amendments.
As reported in my post from last week, the College of Patent Agent and Trademark Agents will come into force on June 28. The supporting regulations were published in Canada Gazette today.
The US Supreme Court has found that the judges of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) were improperly appointed under the U.S. constitution but fixed the issue by making PTAB determinations reviewable by the director of the USPTO (see Arthrex).
The new College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents is coming into force on June 28, 2021. The College will regulate patent and trademark agents, including the exams, maintenance of the register of agents and disciplinary matters. Continue reading College→