With the Queen’s passing, both the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal have issued practice notices today stating:
Henceforth, where the Crown is a party to a proceeding, parties should designate “His Majesty the King” rather than “Her Majesty the Queen”. With respect to pending matters, the designation will be considered to have been so altered without the need to bring a motion to amend the style of cause.
The Federal Court has announced a pilot project for online access to court records. For new proceedings in some areas of law, including intellectual property, started on or after September 12, 2022, e-filed pleadings and written arguments, as well as directions/orders will be available online through the docket listings. There will be a 3-day delay before they are available online and materials subject to a confidentiality order will not be available online. Documents can also be obtained through the Court’s Registry.
The Federal Court issued public reasons for judgment in Rovi Guides v. Videotron, 2022 FC 874. The Court found the four asserted patents invalid for being obvious and/or anticipated and accepted non-infringement defences advanced by the defendant, Videotron. If there had been liability, the Court concluded that the Plaintiff would not have been entitled to an accounting of profits and a design-around cost would have been a reasonable upper bound for any royalty. Videotron was represented by a team from DLA Piper including Bruce Stratton, Alan Macek, Michal Kasprowicz, Gabriella Levkov and Nicole Nazareth.
The Federal Court has issued an updated consolidated Practice Notice dated June 8, 2022. The practice notice consolidates and replaces earlier notices on such issues as informal requests for interlocutory relief, early requests for a hearing, books of authorities, addressing costs at hearings and the appearance of articling students at hearings. Continue reading Federal Court
Bill C-19, “An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022 and other measures” includes
Earlier this week, Justice Sylvie E. Roussel, a Judge of the Federal Court was appointed to the Federal Court of Appeal. Appointments were also made this week to the courts of Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Québec.
Benoit Duchesne of Gowling WLG was appointed as a Prothonotary of the Federal Court today, bringing the number of Prothonotaries to nine.
Amendments to the Federal Courts Rules come into force today – see earlier post. The amendments relate to i) limited scope representation; ii) enforcement of orders; and iii) a series of miscellaneous amendments including to Rule 3.
As mentioned last week, amendments to the Federal Courts Rules are being made, and were published in the Canada Gazette today for:
For my recent article for Slaw, I tracked all the patent infringement proceedings started over the three year period 2017 to 2019. Of the 140 cases, nine have gone to trial, the fastest in 29 months. Over half of cases are resolved in less than two years, typically by discontinuance/settlement.