I will be attending the IPIC conference on September 28-30 and speaking on a panel about IP rights for an AI inventor/creator. Let me know if you are attending as it would be great to connect and reconnect in-person. Continue reading IPIC AGM
All posts by Alan Macek
Patent Life Cycle
I tracked the 42,000 or so patent applications in Canada with a 2001 filing date which all expired by the end of 2021. Only about 17% were still enforceable at expiry but about 30% were in force at the 10 year mark. Overall, about 43% of the original applications (about 18,000) were granted and 118 were litigated in the Federal Court. Continue reading Patent Life Cycle
Closures
The Federal Court and CIPO will be closed on Monday, September 19 for Her Late Majesty’s State Funeral. Both the Federal Court and CIPO will also be closed on September 30 for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Continue reading Closures
Patentable Subject Matter
As reported yesterday, the government/CIPO has appealed the decision of Benjamin Moore v. AGC, 2022 FC 923 regarding the proper test to determine whether a patent application is directed to computer-implemented patentable subject matter. The Notice of Appeal (pdf) states in part, “The Judge erred by ordering the Commissioner to apply the New Test because it contradicts binding jurisprudence of the Federal Court of Appeal in [Amazon] and [Schlumberger].”
Federal Court
Several test proceedings were opened over the weekend, likely to test the new online access to court documents pilot project announced by the Federal Court last week. Continue reading Federal Court
Queen
With the Queen’s passing, both the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal have issued practice notices today stating:
Henceforth, where the Crown is a party to a proceeding, parties should designate “His Majesty the King” rather than “Her Majesty the Queen”. With respect to pending matters, the designation will be considered to have been so altered without the need to bring a motion to amend the style of cause.
Online Federal Court documents
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.
Budget Bill
The budget implementation bill, C-19 received royal assent yesterday. It includes some IP-related changes:
- measures directed to the term of copyright including “6. Except as otherwise expressly provided by this Act, the term for which copyright subsists is the life of the author, the remainder of the calendar year in which the author dies, and a period of 70 years following the end of that calendar year” (Division 16);
- changes to the College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents Act (Division 17); and
- replaces the term “Prothonotary” with “Associate Judge” for the Federal Court (Division 22).
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.
Private Member Bills
The following private member bills were introduced on Friday:
- C-292 “Online Algorithm Transparency Act” directed to ensuring that algorithms used for “moderating content … do not result in adverse differential treatment of any individual or group of individuals based on one or more prohibited ground of discrimination”
- C-294 “An Act to amend the Copyright Act (interoperability)” directed to expanding the interoperability exception in 41.12 to devices in which software is embedded and to products used to provide interoperability.