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.
Continue reading Copyright class action against Thomson Reuters
Utility, selection patents and sound prediction were key issues identified in an analysis of the cases cited in the 132 IP decisions released in 2011 by the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal. The most cited cases related to standard of review, and from the Supreme Court, the 2008 Sanofi decision, Whirlpool, Consolboard and Wellcome.
The Supreme Court of Canada has released a couple of decisions of interest – Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. v.Canada (Health), 2012 SCC 3 relating to trade secrets and access to information of Health Canada drug submissions and Reference re Broadcasting Act, 2012 SCC 4 which determined that Internet Service Providers were not ‘broadcasters’ under the Broadcasting Act.
The Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing in the appeal of the sildenafil PM(NOC) application on the sufficiency of disclosure. The hearing had been scheduled for tomorrow but is now tentatively scheduled for April 20, 2012.
The Federal Court released a decision earlier this week after the trial in the patent infringement action Eurocopter v. Bell Helicopter, 2012 FC 113 finding a claim of the patent valid and infringed. The Court also awarded punitive damages. Continue reading Eurocopter v. Bell Helicopter trial decision
From the Ontario Court, in Paradigm Shift Technologies Inc. v. Alexander Oudovikine, 2012 ONSC 148, the court rejected a motion for an interlocutory injunction on alleged trade secrets held by an ex-employee. In Boulangerie St-Méthode v. Boulangerie Canada Bread, 2012 QCCS 83, the Quebec Court considered distinctiveness and descriptiveness of the mark « sans gras sans sucre » for bread.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released a decision today in DealerTrack v. Huber on the patentability of computer claims. It held that claims “for executing a computer program” were means-plus-function limited to the algorithms in the specification and “computer aided” limitations did not render claims patentable subject matter.
In a decision released today, Jones v. Tsige, 2012 ONCA 32, the Ontario Court of Appeal recognized the existence of a cause of action for intrusion upon seclusion under the common law.
Continue reading ONCA recognizes tort of invasion of privacy
Research In Motion once again tops the list of receiving the most patents in Canada in 2011. Others in the top 5, were P&G, Schlumberger, Honda and Hoffman-La Roche. Approximately 20,000 patents were issued in Canada.
The Canadian Patent Office has allowed the Amazon.com ‘one-click’ patent application and the final fee has been paid. The application, CA2,246,933, was subject of the recent Federal Court of Appeal decision 2011 FCA 328 on patentable subject matter.
Continue reading Amazon.com ‘one-click’ patent application allowed