2024 was an active year in Canadian patent law, with the Federal Court issuing several decisions on the merits regarding invalidity and/or infringement. The courts also considered issues of the regulation of patent agents,...more
1/24/2025
/ Canada ,
Claim Construction ,
Indefiniteness ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Term Adjustment ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents
In our annual review of developments in Canadian patent law, we considered over 60 patent decisions reported last year. This article highlights statutory changes and a selection of interesting points addressed in the reported...more
It has been four years since amendments to the Patent Act and Patent Rules were made, bringing the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) into force in Canada. The most consequential changes have proven to be the handling of missed...more
12/8/2023
/ Canada ,
Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) ,
Due Care ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
New Rules ,
Patent Act ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Cooperation Treaty ,
Patent Filings ,
Patents ,
Reinstatement
Amendments to the Patent Rules were published on June 21, 2023, revising the tariff of fees payable to the Canadian Patent Office, and broadening the small entity definition. The changes take effect on January 1, 2024....more
Bill C-47, “An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023,” aka “Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1” is an omnibus bill that includes proposed amendments to the Patent Act to...more
Bill C-47, entitled “An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023,” had its first reading in the House of Commons on April 20, 2023. This omnibus bill includes proposed...more
2022 was an active year in Canadian patent law. Claim fees were introduced for the first time; changes were made to regulations providing remedies for excessive pricing of patented medicines; and a range of court decisions...more
1/16/2023
/ Appeals ,
Canada ,
Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) ,
Canadian Patent Office ,
Claim Construction ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
WIPO
Canada recently introduced patent rules related to excess claim fees and continued examination fees that have the potential to complicate conventional approaches to filing divisional patent applications....more
Historically, claim fees have not been payable at any time during the pendency of a Canadian patent application or term of the patent. This changed on October 3, 2022, and the present article discusses strategies for...more
Historically, claim fees have not been payable at any time during the pendency of a Canadian patent application or term of the patent. This will change soon, and the present article discusses strategies for minimizing claim...more
Rules amending the Patent Rules1 were registered on June 2, 2022 and will largely come into force on October 3, 2022. The rules introduce claim fees and a continued examination scheme to Canadian patent practice and are...more
2021 saw changes in Canadian patent legislation, and a variety of court decisions addressing rarely interpreted provisions of the Patent Act, early consideration of recently enacted provisions, and new takes on central tenets...more
1/28/2022
/ Canada ,
Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inventive Concept Test ,
Life Sciences ,
Obviousness ,
Patent Act ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Privileged Communication ,
Trademarks
The importance of medical diagnostic technologies has been brought to the fore with the COVID-19 pandemic. Rarely does a day pass when the media does not report on matters of approval and availability of tests, testing...more
As we have reported previously, substantial amendments to the Canadian Patent Act and new Patent Rules came into force on October 30, 2019...more
We recently reported that, in view of the ongoing COVID-19 disruption, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has further extended patent, trademark, and industrial design deadlines until Monday August 24, 2020, and...more
8/20/2020
/ Canada ,
Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Court Schedules ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Life Sciences ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Time Extensions ,
Trademarks
Spanning 5525 miles, the United States-Canada border is the longest border between any two countries. U.S. goods and services trade with Canada totaled an estimated $718.5 billion in 2018, possibly the largest bilateral trade...more
7/17/2020
/ Biologics ,
Canada ,
Certificates of Supplementary Protection (CSPs) ,
Data Protection ,
Double Patent ,
Fair Trade Agreements (FTA) ,
Food and Drug Act ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Life Sciences ,
Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) ,
PMNOC Regulations ,
Treatment Method Patents ,
United States
Bill C-4, entitled An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States (i.e. the USMCA), has received royal assent from the Governor General of Canada....more
Bill C-4, entitled An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States was tabled in the Parliament of Canada on January 29, 2020. The bill introduces some amendments...more
2/13/2020
/ Bilateral Agreements ,
Canada ,
Copyright Terms ,
Counterfeit Goods Regulation ,
Criminal Code ,
Customs ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
NAFTA ,
Patent Term Adjustment ,
Proposed Amendments ,
The Copyright Act ,
Trademarks Act ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)
On December 10, 2019, Canada, the United States and Mexico signed the Protocol of Amendment to the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States and Canada (commonly referred to as the USMCA). The...more
1/3/2020
/ Amended Rules ,
Biologics ,
Canada ,
Certification Marks ,
CETA ,
Collective Marks ,
Copyright ,
CPTPP ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Domain Names ,
Industrial Design ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
NAFTA ,
Patent Law Treaty ,
Patent Term Adjustment ,
Safe Harbors ,
Trademarks ,
Trademarks Act ,
Trump Administration ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)
In a step towards ratifying the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the Canadian government introduced Bill C-100, entitled “An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the...more
5/30/2019
/ Authors ,
Biologics ,
Canada ,
Copyright Terms ,
Counterfeiting ,
CUSMA ,
Damages ,
Data Protection ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
NAFTA ,
New Legislation ,
Patent Term Adjustment ,
Trademarks ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)
On October 29, 2018, the Canadian Government introduced Bill C-86, A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 27, 2018 and other measures. Bill C-86 is omnibus legislation,...more
After more than a year of negotiations, Canada reached a new free-trade agreement with Mexico and the United States minutes before the midnight deadline on September 30, 2018....more
10/5/2018
/ Biologics ,
Canada ,
Collective Marks ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Terms ,
Counterfeiting ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Damages ,
Data Protection ,
Domain Names ,
Industrial Design ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
NAFTA ,
Patent Law Treaty ,
Patent Term Adjustment ,
Patents ,
The Copyright Act ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademarks ,
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) ,
US Trade Policies