In 2018, approximately 23,500 patents were granted by the Canadian Patent Office. Halliburton Energy Services was the top recipient of patents with over twice the patents obtained as any other applicant. The other top applicants were General Electric Company, The Boeing Company, and BlackBerry Limited. Continue reading Top Patentees 2018
Tag Archives: Patents
Budget Bill
Bill C-86, the budget bill that implements changes to the Patent Act, the Trade-marks Act and the Copyright Act, enacts the College of Patent Agents and Trade-mark Agents Act and makes changes for IP licenses in insolvency received royal assent yesterday. Bill C-86 received minor amendments as it went through parliament.
Patent Rules
Amendments to the Patent Rules were published (link) in the Canada Gazette Part I in preparation for ratification of the Patent Law Treaty. As discussed in earlier posts, these amendments overhaul filing requirements, the timing of responses to CIPO notices and the abandonment procedures. Consultation is open for 30 days. CIPO has indicated that implementation is expected by the end of 2019.
USMCA
My latest column for Slaw has been published, on the IP changes included in the US Mexico Canada trade agreement. The agreement is supposed to be signed Friday but reports are that the countries are still in discussions. Continue reading USMCA
Budget Changes
Introduced yesterday, budget bill C-86 includes changes to the Patent Act, Trade-marks Act, Copyright Act, enacts the College of Patent Agents and Trade-mark Agents Act and makes changes for IP licenses in insolvency. Some highlights include a college to regulate agents, reform of the Copyright Board, allows patent file histories to be admissible to rebut claim constructions, add bad faith as a ground of opposition for trademarks, and adds requirements for notices under the notice-and-notice copyright regime.
Patentable Subject Matter
Amazon.com’s “one-click” patent granted after being litigated to the Federal Court of Appeal on the issue of patentable subject matter (2011 FCA 328), expired today.
Trademarks and Patents
Amendments to the Trade-mark Act and Patent Act, Patent Rules and Trademark Regulations are being made as of November 5, 2018 to amend the procedures on CIPO holidays and force majeure events, and as of June 2018 to patent reinstatements .
Lots of Patents
USPTO granted patent No. 10,000,000 entitled, “Coherent LADAR using intra-pixel quadrature detection” to Raytheon today. CIPO allocated patent application 3,000,000 in April of this year.
Happy World IP Day
A number of interesting announcements on World IP Day. The focus of the international focus on IP was on Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity. In Canada, the government announced a National IP Strategy having a number of components including $85.3 million over five years to help Canadian businesses, creators, entrepreneurs and innovators understand, protect and access IP. Announced for IP tools, was more efficient dispute resolution and tariff setting at the Federal Court (more judges) and Copyright Board through more funding, formation of a patent collective, improvements to IP used in standards-setting processes, and an IP-specific marketplace. Announced legislative changes include:
- establishing minimum requirements for patent demand letters;
- excluding settlement demands from the copyright Notice and Notice regime;
- Requiring ‘use’ of a trademark to enforce it within the first three years;
- affirming the patent research exemption;
- clarifying the role of standard essential patents;
- allowing continued use of IP by licensees in liquidation proceedings; and
- creating a College of Patent and Trademark Agents to regulate agents.
In Europe, the UK announced today that it had ratified the Unified Patent Court (UPC) Agreement.
IPRs
The United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC (link), where a majority found that the USPTO’s inter partes reviews (IPRs) were constitutional. In the proceeding, the petitioner had argued that actions to revoke a patent must be tried in an Article III court before a jury, rather than through an administrative procedure.