Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the Federal Court of Appeal’s Amazon.com decision on patentable subject matter. There are reports that new CIPO Practice Notices on patentable subject matter will be issued after Christmas.

Several people have reported that at the AIPPI Canada AGM on November 22nd, Sylvain Laporte (Commissioner of Patents) provided an update on the publication of the guidelines and indicated that they would likely not be published until after Christmas.

These guidelines follow from the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision regarding Amazon.com’s “one-click” patent released on November 24, 2011.

• November 24, 2011 – Federal Court of Appeal issued its decision on the patentability of Amazon.com’s “one-click” invention
• December 23, 2011 – Amazon.com’s application was remanded and allowed by CIPO. The final fee was paid by Amazon.com before the end of the year.
• January 17, 2012 – Amazon.com’s “one-click” patent, CA2,246,933 issued.
• April 2, 2012 – CIPO published draft guidance on patentable subject matter and seeks comments from stakeholders until May 2, 2012.
• May 28, 2012 – CIPO published the comments it received on its proposed guidance.
• September 17, 2012 – CIPO announced that it is still reviewing comments and will provide a further update at the beginning of October 2012.
• November 22, 2012 – The Commissioner suggests that the guidelines will not be published until after Christmas

Thanks to Isabelle Chabot, Graeme Boocock and Smart & Biggar for tweeting about this update.