In an announcement today, Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada, announced today that she will retire from the Supreme Court of Canada effective December 15, 2017 after 28 years at the Supreme Court.
All posts by Alan Macek
Judicial Appointments
Judicial appointments have been made in the Federal Court, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia. In the Federal Court, Prothonotary Lafrenière was appointed as a judge.
“Miscellaneous Amendments”
Proposed amendments to the Federal Courts Rules have been published that are described as “non-substantive, non-controversial”. The proposed changes address differences between the English and French versions and reduce the number of paper copies required in some circumstances. Consultation is open for 60 days.
Updates
Here are several news items that may be of interest:
- An Order in Council has indefinitely suspended implementation of the private right of action under CASL, Canada’s anti-spam legislation. The private right of action was scheduled to come into force on July 1, 2017.
- CIPO has advised that it will beginning a series of consultations over the summer on proposed regulatory amendments for Industrial Design Regulations, Trade-marks Regulations, Patent Rules relating to implementation of the Hague Agreement, Madrid Protocol, Singapore Treaty, the Nice Agreement and the Patent Law Treaty.
- Global Affairs Canada has announced consultation on the renegotiation and modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The government invites submissions on a variety of topics including intellectual property.
Exhaustion
The United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc. on patent exhaustion reversing the en banc decision of the CAFC.
This case presents two questions about the scope of the patent exhaustion doctrine: First, whether a patentee that sells an item under an express restriction on the purchaser’s right to reuse or resell the product may enforce that restriction through an infringement lawsuit. And second, whether a patentee exhausts its patent rights by selling its product outside the United States, where American patent laws do not apply. We conclude that a patentee’s decision to sell a product exhausts all of its patent rights in that item, regardless of any restrictions the patentee purports to impose or the location of the sale.(link)
Venue
The United States Supreme Court issued its decision in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC stating that corporate ‘residence’ refers only to the state of incorporation. The patent venue statute, 28 U. S. C. §1400(b), provides that “[a]ny civil action for patent infringement may be brought in the judicial district where the defendant resides, or where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business.” This decision will likely have a significant effect on the number of cases filed in Texas, which saw 37% of all patent cases in 2016.
Protective Orders
My recent article on the use of protective and confidentiality orders in the Federal Court is available on Slaw. This topic was one of the items discussed last week at the Federal Court town hall and was the subject of an order released last week which stated, “The open court principle is of crucial importance in a democratic society, … Confidentiality orders inherently compromise these fundamental principles and important rights.” Continue reading Protective Orders
CETA
Bill C-30, the CETA implementation legislation received royal assent today. The Bill includes amendments to the Patent Act, regarding supplementary protection for pharmaceutical products and altering patent linkage system, and to the Trade-mark Act regarding geographic indicators with grounds of opposition and certain exceptions for prior use, acquired rights and generic terms. Amendments are also proposed to a number of other acts. Implementation regulations are expected any day.
PMPRB
Health Canada has opened consultation on proposed amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations including introducing new regulation factors, updated comparator countries, a complaints-based system for some products, and identification of pricing information and third party information required. Continue reading PMPRB
CBA IP Day
After a kickoff at the Diversity Breakfast, CBA IP Day continued with the Federal Court’s Town Hall focused on the imminent overhaul to pharmaceutical litigation in Canada, including two years to trial, focused discovery, changes to costs regime and efficient trial management. Bill C-30, the CETA implementation legislation cleared the senate this afternoon. Continue reading CBA IP Day