In an appeal from a prothonotary decision relating to inventor examinations, a five-member panel of the Federal Court of Appeal held that the court “should abandon the Aqua-Gem standard and adopt the one set out in Housen” for appeals from discretionary decisions of prothonotaries.
Tag Archives: Federal Court
Patent Experts
My recent column on the use of experts in patent cases was published last week on Slaw.ca. It touches on some of the recent developments in this area including the updated guidelines on experimental testing, blinding of experts and number of experts in bifurcated proceedings. Continue reading Patent Experts
Prothonotary Appointment
Mandy Aylen, a partner at BLG, has been appointed a prothonotary of the Federal Court in Ottawa. The appointment was effective June 16th. Continue reading Prothonotary Appointment
Judicial Appointments
Judges were appointed today to the courts in Alberta, Ontario, BC and Quebec and to the Federal Court of Appeal. Justice Judith M. Woods, formerly a judge of the Tax Court was appointed to the Federal Court of Appeal.
Town Hall
At the Federal Court’s annual town hall held on May 12, 2016, the court provided an update and made some new announcements, including new Case Management Guidelines for NOC Applications.
Gene Patents
For those following Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s challenge to the validity of certain gene patents in the Federal Court (T-2249-14 – see earlier post), CHEO has announced a settlement: “the patent holder Transgenomic has agreed to provide CHEO and all other Canadian public sector hospitals and laboratories the right to test Canadians for Long QT syndrome on a not-for-profit basis”.
Summary Judgment and Summary Trial
My recent article on the 2009 amendments to the Federal Courts Rules relating to summary judgment and summary trial, particular for intellectual property proceedings was published by Slaw.
Costs
The Federal Court has issued a discussion paper on costs in the Federal Court. A subcommittee of the Federal Courts Rules committee is seeking comments by November 23, 2015 on costs, including on addressing improper, vexatious and unnecessary litigation, access to justice and methods of calculating costs.
Proportional Litigation
The Federal Court has issued a practice notice on streamlining discovery and case management called “Case management: Increased Proportionality in Complex Litigation before the Federal Court”. The guidelines and recommendations, arising from the Court’s Case Management Working Group, include limits on documentary and oral discovery and refusal motions.
IP Items
A few items that may be of interest:
- The United States Supreme Court issued its decision today in Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC, upholding the rule that a patentee cannot continue to receive patent royalties for sales made after the patent expires.
- The House of Commons has adjourned for the summer so pending bills, including Bill C-65, amending the Copyright Act to implement the Marrakesh Treaty for the blind, will need to be re-introduced. Bill C-59, the budget implementation bill which includes amendments to the Patent Act, Copyright Act, Industrial Design Act and Trade-marks Act, is still pending before the Senate.
- The Federal Court has issued a practice notice on the publication of decisions having ‘precedential’ and ‘non-precedential’ value.