PCK-Reporter

October 5, 2016

“More or Less Self-evident” Remains the Standard in the Obvious-to-Try Test

2015 FCA 286 - An attack on the Federal Court’s slight rewording of the obvious-to-try test has proven unsuccessful. The FC referring to a 'fair expectation of success'" was not a reviewable error.
October 5, 2016

Canadian Version of Alice Financial Services Patent Rejected for Lack of Statutory Subject Matter

PAB 1408 - The Canadian version of one of the computer-implemented financial services patent applications from the famous U.S. case on software patent eligibility, Alice Corp v CLS Bank International, 573 U.S. __, 134 S. Ct. 2347 (2014), was rejected for lack of patentable subject matter.
October 4, 2016

FCA Alters the Standard of Review of Prothonotary Decisions

2016 FCA 215 - The FCA has held that the standard of review applicable to discretionary orders made by prothonotaries that was enunciated in Canada v. Aqua-Gem Investments Ltd. should be abandoned and replaced withthe standard that was set out by the Supreme Court of Canada in Housen v. Nikolaisen.
October 3, 2016

FCA Will not Reweigh Expert Evidence to Appeal Patent Invalidity

2015 FCA 191 - The FCA dismissed an appeal wherein Alcon sought to reverse a finding of invalidity against its patent by surreptitiously asking the FCA to reweigh the evidence as a challenge against the Federal Court Judge’s findings of fact and preferred expert evidence.
October 3, 2016

Careful Patent Drafting Saves Novartis’s EXJADE Patent Despite Two Distinct Promises

2016 FCA 230 - The FCA found that the EXJADE patent was drafted so as to make an important distinction between the utilities of the Formula I and Formula II compounds, and thereby held the Formula II claims to a lesser promise, and dismissed Teva’s allegations of inutility.
September 30, 2016

Software and Data Analytics Patents still a Challenge in Canada

PAB 1407 - The PAB rejected the computer-implemented data analytics patent application of Canadian Patent Application No. 2,798,566, entitled “Identified Customer Reporting”, for lack of statutory subject matter, since no physical feature – no computing device – was found to be essential to the claims.
September 6, 2016

Patent Application for Blackjack Variation Rejected as Unpatentable Subject Matter

In Re Smith, (Fed. Cir. 2015-1664) - A patent application for a variation on the blackjack game was rejected as unpatentable after the CAFC applied the two-step test for patentable subject matter from Mayo and Alice.
August 31, 2016

FCA Confirms Reasonably Diligent Search Correct Test in Obviousness Analysis

2015 FCA 163 - In the obviousness analysis and determining whether a person skilled in the art would have discovered the prior art, the FCA upheld the application of a reasonably diligent search standard.
August 29, 2016

FC Rejects Jurisdiction over Contract Law in Assignment Dispute, Comments that s. 51 of the Patent Act Supersedes Conflict of Laws Principles

2016 FC 830 - The FC dismissed a case of contractual dispute over the ownership of a patent, and commented that, regardless of whether conflict of laws principles apply, no assignment or transfer of a patent can take place except in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction in which the patent was granted (s. 51 of the Patent Act).
August 24, 2016

PCK StartIP Series: 2 – Patent Grace Periods; A Way for a Lean Startup to Defer Patent Filing Costs

Provisional patent applications are the traditional way that a lean startup can obtain some preliminary patent protection at reasonable cost while they accelerate product development and […]
August 22, 2016

FC Bifurcates Infringement & Validity Issues from Section 8 PM(NOC) Proceeding in Hopes of Settlement

2016 FC 720 - The FC bifurcated the issues of infringement and validity from any other section 8 issue in hopes that bifurcation would likely lead to a settlement of all the issues between the parties.
August 19, 2016

Injunctions for Patent Infringement: Only “Some” Connection Between a Product’s Infringing Features And Demand For Competitor’s Product is Required

(No. 14-1802 Fed. Cir.) - The CAFC held that a patentee does not have to prove that the infringing features of a competitor’s product were the exclusive or predominant reason why consumers bought the competitor’s product to obtain an injunction for patent infringement. Rather, it is sufficient to prove that there was some connection between the infringing features and the demand for the competitor’s product.
August 15, 2016

Motion to Stay Denied –Defamation Action and Trade-marks Act Claim Proceed in Parallel

2015 ONSC 7980 - The SCJ decided that the legal tests and the remedies available in a defamation action and an action for false and misleading statements under the Trade-marks Act are different enough that a stay of proceeding to block one action before the conclusion of the other should be denied.
August 8, 2016

FC Calls on Opening Canadian Patent Prosecution File Histories for Claim Construction

2016 FC 883 - The Federal Court followed the longstanding rule against the use of patent prosecution file history in interpreting the claims of a patent, but made a strong case for why the patent prosecution file history is worth considering, as is common practice in the U.S.
August 8, 2016

Knowledge of Related Patents not “Actual Knowledge” for Awarding Pre-Issuance Damages

In U.S. patent infringement, the “actual notice” requirement in 35 USC § 154(d) requires actual knowledge of a published patent application. Knowledge of related patents, even those sharing a description, and indirect references to a published patent application in emails may not be sufficient to prove actual notice.
August 2, 2016

FC Denies Data Protection for Ester of a Previously Approved Medicinal Ingredient

2015 FC 959 - The Health Minister denied data protection for Cysview after finding it was not an “innovative drug”, and the FC indicated the scope of “innovative drug” does not extend to combinations of the enumerated variations of previously approved medicinal ingredients in the Regulations (salt, ester, enantiomer, solvate or polymorph).
May 20, 2016

Software Patent Lines are Drawn: USPTO Comments on Enfish and TLI Communications Decisions

In the Enfish case, the Federal Circuit confirmed the patentability of a “self-referential” database invention as not being directed to an abstract idea under 35 U.S.C. § 101. In the TLI Communications, the Federal Circuit found a proposed invention of classifying and storing digital images using a telephone unit to be abstract.
May 6, 2016

Law Remains Unsettled Regarding Appropriate Date for Assessing Obviousness-type Double Patenting

2015 FC 875 - The FC noted that the law is unsettled when it comes to determining the appropriate date for assessing obvious-type double patenting.
April 26, 2016

PCK StartIP Series: 1 – Patent Budgeting for Lean Startups

We have prepared a guide that outlines the timelines and major spend points for two common patent filing strategies: a global patent filing and US-only patent filing.
April 22, 2016

Federal Court Finds “Rigidification” Patent to be Sufficient but Obvious

2015 FC 997 - The FC found that the invention was merely to add a polymer to the slurry, which was known in the prior art, and to continue to do so until the slurry rigidified. The Court found this solution to be obvious to try, and sufficiently disclosed, even though the meaning of “rigidify” was never made clear.