The Copyright Board has launched a new website (https://cb-cda.gc.ca/) and alerts should now be working for Copyright Board activity if this is enabled in your personal IPPractice email preferences. Continue reading Copyright Board
Federal Court of Appeal
The FCA issued a COVID related Practice Notice this week regarding in person, remote and hybrid hearings taking place this fall. It also comments on phase out of the Suspension Period at the FCA and the Time Limits and Other Periods Act (COVID-19). The FCA has been posting cases released from the Suspension Period each week.
CIPO
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has again extended the period of designated days so certain time limits will now be extended until August 31, 2020. This latest extension is due to the August 21 to 23 online service interruption. According to the announcement, all of CIPO’s online and fax services will be unavailable from Friday, at 7 pm EDT to Sunday, at 11:59 pm EDT.
Patent Appeal Board
The Patent Appeal Board has migrated the reporting of its decision to the Lexum/CanLII platform. I’ve finally updated my notifications for this platform so starting in today’s IPPractice email, and for the next several days I’ll be catching up on decisions issued since May of this year.
CIPO
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has extended the period of designated days so certain time limits will now be extended until August 24, 2020. CIPO indicates that this is the ‘final’ extension for the designated days.
CIPO
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has again extended the period of designated days so certain time limits will now be extended until August 10, 2020.
Federal Court
The Federal Court has issued a revised COVID-19 order (see earlier post) clarifying the 2-week buffer period after the end of the Suspension Period such that timelines will be begin to run June 30 for the Western and Eastern provinces and on July 14 for Ontario, Quebec and the territories. The update also clarifies the handling of original affidavits that may have been submitted electronically.
Virtual Hearings
On Friday, I’m speaking on an IPIC webinar, “The Virtual IP Court Hearing: What You Should Know Before You “Zoom” Into Court” with Nicole Mantini, Josh Spicer and Andrew Bernstein. I’ll be sharing some of my recent experiences from the two and half-week virtual trial in the Rovi v Videotron proceeding.
CIPO
Patent Branch has issued a Practice Notice addressing requests to record a transfer, registering document and changing a name under sections 124, 125 and 126 of the Patent Rules and section 49 of the Patent Act.
Foreign Updates
A couple of non-Canadian developments that may be of interest:
- a majority of the US Supreme Court allowed the registration for the trademark “Booking.com” in the face of arguments that it was generic: “According to the PTO, adding “.com” to a generic term—like adding “Company”—can convey no source-identifying meaning. That premise is faulty, for only one entity can occupy a particular Internet domain name at a time, so a “generic.com” term could convey to consumers an association with a particular website.”
- the UK Supreme Court in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc v Kymab Ltd considered patent sufficiency: “The disclosure required of the patentee is such as will, coupled with the common general knowledge existing as at the priority date, be sufficient to enable the skilled person to make substantially all the types or embodiments of products within the scope of the claim.”