Over the past two decades, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been working on a Design Law Treaty focused on aligning examination and procedural guidelines associated with what have historically been...more
The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) published its final rule, creating a separate design patent bar where admitted design patent practitioners will practice in design patent proceedings only. (88 Fed. Reg. 78644 (Nov. 16,...more
Investing in the creation of industrial designs is critical in modern business practice, as it allows a company’s product to stand out in an increasingly competitive market dynamic. Just as important as creating distinctive...more
CIPO has recently announced that most of its official fees will increase by at least 25% in 2024. These adjustments will affect all pending applications for patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyrights, as well as...more
The recent proliferation of useful Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) tools for tasks like text, image, music, and software code generation is all the rage. In the intellectual property sphere, one of the hottest topics...more
Graphical User Interface (GUI) refers to icons, windows, and/or menus to offer a mechanism to interact with electronic devices visually. There has been quite a bit of debate around the registrability of GUIs under industrial...more
This article provides helpful advice for companies wanting to protect their IP rights and increase their profits. Smart & Biggar IP experts detail the importance of investing in industrial design or design patents to ensure...more
Earlier this fall the Federal Court of Canada issued a rare decision concerning industrial design infringement and reaffirmed several points of law favouring holders of industrial design registrations in Canada seeking to...more
For months, global patent practitioners have been expecting China to announce sweeping, significant changes to the nation’s system of intellectual property laws—and they were not disappointed. On Oct. 17, the Standing...more
On 30 June the House of Representatives voted and approved 3 decrees whereby A new Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property is enacted, Federal Copyright Law is amended; and, Federal Criminal Code is also...more
On 27 May 2020 WIPO launched new online business service, WIPO PROOF, that provides tamper-proof evidence of the existence at a point in time of any digital file, including data sets, in any format. The WIPO PROOF service...more
On July 30, 2019, Canada acceded to the Patent Law Treaty. This accession marks the near completion of a long and ambitious journey by Canada to modernize its patent, trademark and industrial design laws and to harmonize...more
Effective Ways to Protect Your Intellectual Property: International Design Patents - The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Deposit of Industrial Designs (the “Hague Agreement”) is an international registration...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
On March 13, 2018, amendments to the “Ley de la Propiedad Industrial” (IP Law) were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation. These reforms will enter into force on April 13, 2018....more