The United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Bowman v. Monsanto Co on the application of patent exhaustion to second generation self-replicating genetically modified seeds.
All posts by Alan Macek
Tariffs for online music
The Copyright Board released its tariff decision in the SOCAN Tariff 22.A and CSI Tariff proceedings for online music. The Board certified tariffs for CSI for music downloads, to both SOCAN and CSI for online music streaming and to SOCAN for video-clips. The Board applied the recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions on previews and downloads.
Judicial Appointments
The Honourable Michael Manson, a lawyer from Smart & Biggar has been appointed to the Federal Court. Appointments were also made to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Tax Court, and courts in British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
Proposed changes to final action patent practice
Proposed changes to the Patent Rules were published in the Canada Gazette relating to the handling of patent applications after a “Final Action”. The proposed changes include permitting a review of the entire application and allowing the application without returning it to the examiner from the Patent Appeal Board.
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Proposed changes to Patent and Trade-mark Agent Examinations
Proposed regulations were published in the Canada Gazette relating to the patent agent and trade-mark agent examinations. The proposed changes include requiring lawyers to write the trademark agent exam to become agents and introducing more flexibility for running the patent agent exam.
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CIPO extends PPH
CIPO announced today that it is extending the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) arrangements with Finland, Germany and Spain until at least September 2014.
CIPO’s patentable subject matter update
AIA Rules
New rules for U.S. patent prosecution came into force yesterday as part of implementation of the America Invents Act. The new rules relate to inventor oath and declarations, supplemental examination, inter parte review, post grant review and covered business method patents.
Red Shoes
The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit released its decision today in Christian Louboutin v. Yves Saint Laurent reversing the lower court in part, concluding that a single colour can be a trademark in the fashion industry and “Louboutin’s trademark, consisting of a red, lacquered outsole on a high fashion woman’s shoe, has acquired limited ‘secondary meaning’ as a distinctive symbol that identifies the Louboutin brand.”
Prosecution Pitfalls
My article on patent prosecution after the Federal Court of Appeal’s Weatherford decision was published today on the legal blog, Slaw. Over the summer several IP contributors have been writing short articles for the blog.