The Federal Court has announced a pilot project for online access to court records. For new proceedings in some areas of law, including intellectual property, started on or after September 12, 2022, e-filed pleadings and written arguments, as well as directions/orders will be available online through the docket listings. There will be a 3-day delay before they are available online and materials subject to a confidentiality order will not be available online. Documents can also be obtained through the Court’s Registry.
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Patent Decision
The Federal Court issued public reasons for judgment in Rovi Guides v. Videotron, 2022 FC 874. The Court found the four asserted patents invalid for being obvious and/or anticipated and accepted non-infringement defences advanced by the defendant, Videotron. If there had been liability, the Court concluded that the Plaintiff would not have been entitled to an accounting of profits and a design-around cost would have been a reasonable upper bound for any royalty. Videotron was represented by a team from DLA Piper including Bruce Stratton, Alan Macek, Michal Kasprowicz, Gabriella Levkov and Nicole Nazareth.
Privacy and AI
Bill C-27, “Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022”, was introduced yesterday that would
- enact the “Consumer Privacy Protection Act” directed to the use of personal information, replacing portions of PIPEDA.
- establish a tribunal for hearing appeals of decision made by the Privacy Commissioner and impose penalties.
- enact the “Artificial Intelligence and Data Act” regulating the use of artificial intelligent systems, particularly those with a ‘high-impact’.
Federal Court
The Federal Court has issued an updated consolidated Practice Notice dated June 8, 2022. The practice notice consolidates and replaces earlier notices on such issues as informal requests for interlocutory relief, early requests for a hearing, books of authorities, addressing costs at hearings and the appearance of articling students at hearings. Continue reading Federal Court
Patent Rules
Amendments to the Patent Rules have been registered and will come into force on July 1st for amendments related to sequence listings, and October 3, 2022 for other amendments to “streamline examination’, including excess claim fees and requests for continued examination. The changes will include a $100 per claim fee for applications with more than 20 claims (see new section 80), and a fee for continued examination after three office actions equal to the original examination fee (see section 85.1). The amendments also add steps such as ‘notices of conditional allowance’. Continue reading Patent Rules
Competition Bureau
The Competition Bureau and Health Canada’s Health Product and Food Branch (HPFB) announced a collaboration focused on affordable medicines. The announcement focused on generic companies obtaining samples of the branded drug required to develop and support the regulatory authorization of their generic medicine.
Intellectual Property Ontario
Ontario has created “Intellectual Property Ontario”, a new agency directed to among other things “increase public access to services and resources in respect of intellectual property in order to advance economic growth and competitiveness in Ontario” by supporting development and protection of IP, partnering with educational institutions and providing recommendations to the government. Continue reading Intellectual Property Ontario
Patent Appeal Board
CIPO has announced it is continuing and expanding its procedure to refer final rejections of patent applications to a single member of the PAB in certain circumstances if the rejection only relates to patentable subject matter (with some exceptions), s27(4) and the Patent Rules. CIPO is working to “increase efficiencies and reduce turnaround times” at the PAB. The 2019-2020 Annual Report identified 71 appeals to the PAB and 41 decisions issued.
Happy New Year
Thank you for another year with IPPractice. In 2021, I’ve sent out 461,000 emails to over 2100 subscribers. I have included reports on 200 IP-related decisions and over 350 new IP-proceedings. Happy New Year! Continue reading Happy New Year
Federal Courts Rules
Amendments to the Federal Courts Rules coming into force in January, have been registered. The amendments include expansion to Rule 3 to focus on ‘outcome’ and proportionality rather than ‘determination’, explicit powers to limit examinations (rule 87.1) and a rule specifically for motions in writing at the Federal Court of Appeal (rule 369.2), among other things.