To what extent are non-practicing entities (NPEs – aka patent assertion entities or in some instances, patent trolls) operating and asserting patents in Canada? Please help me by completing a short survey on NPE activity in Canada. I’ll post the results in a few weeks. Thanks to those who have already completed the survey.
Tag Archives: Patents
IPEGs
The Competition Bureau has released updated Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines. The guidelines are directed to the Bureau’s approach to investigating anti-competitive activities relating to intellectual property including settlements, particularly in PM(NOC) proceedings, price-fixing, patent pooling, product switching, patent assertion entities and standard essential patents.
More Promise?
The Supreme Court of Canada will release its leave to appeal decision on Thursday in AstraZeneca Canada Inc., et al. v. Apotex Inc., et al. (Esomeprazole), which considers, among other things, the promised utility doctrine in Canada. SCC File #36654 on appeal from 2015 FCA 158.
US Agent Privilege
Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision in Re: Queen’s University relating to non-attorney patent agent privilege. The Court concluded that such privilege should be recognized.
NAFTA Proceeding
Nine entities have filed amicus curiae applications in Eli Lilly’s NAFTA arbitration proceeding relating to the ‘promise doctrine’. The entities include industry associations, and academics.
Patents
A couple of items from last week that may be of interest:
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in an en banc decision, held in Lexmark v. Impression held that when a product is sold with limitations on re-sale or use restrictions, this restriction prevents exhaustion of patent rights with respect to downstream sales in breach of those restrictions.
- CIPPIC and the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy at McGill University have jointly sought amicus curae status in Eli Lilly’s NAFTA arbitration relating to the ‘promise doctrine’. They have published their application and their submissions.
- “Threading the biosimilar needle: Patent lawyers walk a fine line between dosage regimes and medical treatment“, an article by my colleagues, Geoff Mowatt and Nik Purcell, was published in The Lawyers Weekly.
- My article, “Summary Resolution of Intellectual Property Cases“, was published last week in Slaw. It focuses on the 2009 summary trial and summary judgment amendments to the Federal Courts Rules and their application to IP cases.
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.
Top Patentees
BlackBerry tops the list once again for receiving the most Canadian patents in the past year, obtaining almost twice as many patents as the second place applicant. The others in the top five for 2015 were Qualcomm, Halliburton Energy Services, General Electric and Schlumberger. Approximately 21,000 Canadian patents were granted last year to approximately 9000 applicants. Continue reading Top Patentees
NAFTA Arbitration
The rejoinder submissions and evidence of the Canadian Government has been posted in Eli Lilly’s NAFTA Chapter 11 arbitration against the Canadian government relating to the utility of Eli Lilly’s Zyprexa and Strattera patents. Continue reading NAFTA Arbitration
TPP
Last week, the official text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership was posted, including the chapter on Intellectual Property and various related side instruments. The new Liberal government has said it will review the agreement and have consultations.