CIPO has updated its notice on its Forward Regulatory Plan, to indicate that publication of proposed changes to the Trade-mark Regulations(Accession to trademark treaties and modernization of Canada’s trademark regime), Industrial Design Regulations (Hague Agreement) and Patent Rules (Patent Law Treaty) for consultation in Canada Gazette, Part 1 is “expected late 2016”.
On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in CBC v. SODRAC, an appeal from the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision on what copyright royalties are payable on ephemeral copies under the principles of technology neutrality.
Sylvain Laporte, Commissioner of Patents and Registrar of Trade-marks has been appointed President of the Canadian Space Agency, effective March 9, 2015.
Honourable Justice Rennie has been elevated to the Federal Court of Appeal. Also today, Honourable Denis Gascon has been appointed to the Federal Court. Gascon was formerly with Norton Rose Fulbright Canada in Montreal practising in the area of competition law and international trade regulations.
Changes to the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act received royal assent today. The legislation, Bill C-18, An Act to amend certain Acts relating to agriculture and agri-food, includes changes addressing the duration, scope and exceptions to the rights under the Act.
The Federal Courts Rules have been amended to remove obstacles to greater use of technology by the court. Among other things, the changes permit the registry to maintain an official electronic record, clarifying electronic service, amend the definition of ‘document’ and permit electronic filing. Also, the Federal Court has published a Notice to the Profession regarding obtaining copies from the digital audio recording system used at hearings.
The government has posted its counter memorial regarding Eli Lilly’s NAFTA arbitration of Canada’s ‘promise utility doctrine’. The next phase, according to the proceeding’s schedule, is the production of documents.
The Honourable Richard Bell, formerly of the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick, has been appointed to the Federal Court. Appointments were also made to the Tax Court, Nova Scotia courts, Court of Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick, and Ontario Superior Court.
About 50,400 trademark applications were filed in Canada in 2014. Of these, about 20% were filed in-house or without an agent (about the same as in the last couple of years). Gowlings, Bereskin & Parr and Smart & Biggar were the firms that filed the most trademark applications. Check out my list of the 50 firms/agents that filed the most applications in 2014.
BlackBerry tops the list once again for receiving the most Canadian patents in the past year. The others in the top five for 2014 were Qualcomm, P&G, General Electric and Schlumberger. Approximately 23,000 Canadian patents were granted last year to approximately 9500 applicants.
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