Justice Locke of the Federal Court was elevated to the Federal Court of Appeal. Angela Furlanetto of DLA Piper was appointed a Prothonotary of the Federal Court. Appointments were also made today to the courts in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick. Continue reading Judicial Appointments
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2018 Wrap Up
We are now a couple of weeks into 2019 but I thought a brief summary of 2018 may be of interest:
- 175 IP decisions reported (201 in 2017)
- 363 new IP Federal Court proceedings started (376 in 2017)
- 83 patent infringement cases (50 in 2017)
- 23,499 patents granted (24,099 in 2017)
- 25,222 trademarks registered (29,766 in 2017)
- 9 IP related SCC proceedings started (11 in 2017)
- 6 IP trials in Federal Court (10 in 2017)
- around 120 trial days (~150 in 2017)
- Over 400,000 emails sent to IPPractice subscribers
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.
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
Trademarks
Amendments to the Trademarks Act and Regulations will come into force on June 17, 2019 implementing the Madrid, Nice and Singapore treaties.
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.
Appointments
Justice Marianne Rivoalen was appointed to the Federal Court of Appeal today. She replaces Justice J.M. Woods, who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective April 1, 2018. Prior to today’s appointment she was Associate Chief Justice of Her Majesty’s Court of Queen’s Bench for Manitoba (Family Division). Appointments were also made today to in the province of Saskatchewan. Continue reading Appointments
Notice-and-Notice
The Supreme Court issued its decision in Rogers Communications Inc. v. Voltage Pictures, LLC, 2018 SCC 38 relating to the costs that ISPs can claim for comply with Norwich orders under the Copyright Act. Continue reading Notice-and-Notice
Patent Pending
My recent article on patent pendency was published this week on Slaw. For patents granted by the Canadian Patent Office in the first half of 2018, the duration a patent application was pending ranged from less than 6 months to over 18 years.
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 .