Judges were appointed today to the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Quebec Court of Appeal, the B.C. Court of Appeal, the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench, the Superior Court of Quebec, and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. In other judicial news, former Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie has announced that he is joining Lenczner Slaght.
Category Archives: Daily Alert
CIPO consultation on patentable subject matter
CIPO has released its consultation documents on patentable subject matter. The consultation period is open until May 2, 2012 and relates to both the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision in Amazon.com and diagnostic methods.
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Sound marks in with a roar
The first sound trademark was approved and advertised in today’s Canadian Trade-mark Journal – MGM’s roaring lion. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office announced that they will now be accepting applications for sound trademarks effective immediately.
No Copyright Crown immunity
The Copyright Board has released its reasons for denying a claim of Crown immunity by various provincial governments in Access Copyright’s request for a tariff on reproductions by government employees.The governments had challenged the legality of the tariff on the basis that tariffs under the Copyright Act did not apply to the government.
USSC on unpatentable subject matter
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued its decision on the patentability of correlation procedures in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. The Court unanimously reversed the CAFC and held that the claims were effectively directed to laws of nature and therefore unpatentable.
Courts and electronic files
An Ontario Court judge issued a decision this week bemoaning the lack of electronic court records: “I suppose that on a sunny, unusually warm, mid-March day one should be mellow and accept, without complaint, the systemic failures and delay of this Court’s document management system.”
Lawyers dispute domain name
Canadian lawyers disputed the ownership of the domain name <fertilitylawcanada.com> under the UDRP and in an arbitration decision released yesterday, the panel held that common names for areas of legal practice are generally non-distinctive and there was no secondary meaning in this case.
Trademarks and Competition Act
The Ontario Court has released a decision this week in The Commissioner of Competition v. Yellow Page Marketing, 2012 ONSC 927 which found that, contrary to the Competition Act, the respondents had made material false or misleading representations intending to deceive Canadians into believing they were dealing with the Yellow Pages Group, owner of the Yellow Pages trademark and walking fingers design.
Copyright in Prior Art
Two publishers have launched copyright infringement actions against two U.S. law firms for allegedly reproducing copies of publications and submitting copies to the United States Patent Office as prior art.
Copyright class action against Thomson Reuters
The Ontario Superior Court has granted certification in the class action against Thomson Reuters/Carswell for copyright infringement over allegations of reproducing copies of court filed documents. The class includes lawyers in private practice who have authored materials filed with the courts and reproduced in Carswell’s “Litigator” offering.
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