Amendments to the Trademarks Act and Regulations will come into force on June 17, 2019 implementing the Madrid, Nice and Singapore treaties.
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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 .
Industrial Designs
The amended Industrial Design Act and Regulations will come into force November 5, 2018 to implement the Hague Agreement. These changes were first introduced in 2014 as part of budget legislation.
Industrial Designs
As part of implementation of the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, CIPO has published a proposed amended Industrial Design Office Practice Manual (IDOP) for consultation. The Practice Notice indicates that the consultation is open until June 29th with a view to the regulations coming into force date in late 2018.
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.
3,000,000
CIPO announced today that it has allocated patent application number 3,000,000. This is the one-millionth ‘New Act’ patent application.