Summary

September 13, 2018

Canada’s Federal Court Orders Variation of the Records of the Patent Office to Rectify Mistake in Application

2018 FC 311 – Pursuant to section 52 of the Patent Act, the FC ordered the variation of the Patent Office Records in relation to Canadian Patent Nos. 2,614,533 and 2,919,266 to rectify a mistake in the name of the legal owner of the patents.
September 11, 2018

Federal Court Allows New Evidence Pursuant to Section 56 of Trade-marks Act, Allows Appeal

2018 FC 853 - The Federal Court allowed Swatch AG’s appeal of a decision of the Registrar of Trade-marks allowing Hudson Watch Inc’s opposition to Swatch’s registration of its “iSWATCH” mark.
August 28, 2018

Law Firm Removed on Patent Infringement Action Due to Conflict of Interest

2017 FC 874 - Aitken Klee disqualified from representing Betser-Zelevitch because one of its partners had acted for Nexen in the same action, while at another law firm.
July 24, 2018

FCA Affirms Patent Application is “Dead” Following Failure to Respond to Requisition

2018 FCA 36 - The Federal Court of Appeal upheld the Federal Court decision dismissing the application from the Governors of the University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services for judicial review of the Commissioner’s decisions refusing reinstatement of a patent application.
July 10, 2018

Federal Court of Appeal Provides Further Guidance on Obviousness

2017 FCA 225 - Federal Court of Appeal upheld the trial level decision invalidating Ciba's Canadian patent for obviousness, and elaborated on the obviousness inquiry, endorsing an approach that focuses on construing the claims rather than identifying the inventive concept.
June 27, 2018
accounting

Defendants Are Not Entitled to Elect Accounting of Profits

2018 FCA 32 - The FCA dismissed Apotex’s appeal challenging the remedial decision, regarding Bayer's Canadian Patent No. 2,382,426, holding that subsection 57(1) of the Patent Act did not grant a defendant in a patent infringement suit the right to choose an accounting of profits over damages to be paid to the patentee.
May 24, 2018

Federal Court Rejects PMPRB’s Approach to “Invention Pertains to Medicine” Analysis

2017 FC 1023 - The FC quashed a decision of the PMPRB, reasoning that the PMPRB failed to apply the correct test: reviewing the patent as a whole and determining what the invention was.
May 8, 2018

ONSC Educates an Inventor on the Difference Between Obtaining a Patent and Maintaining a Trade Secret

2017 ONSC 7276 - The ONSC found that Rowland's statement of claim did not disclose a reasonable cause of action with regard to the allegation that his "trade secret" was stolen.
April 3, 2018

Non-Infringing Alternative Defence Denied in Omeprazole Infringement Profit Case

2017 FC 726 - The FC held that Apotex did not satisfy the factual burden required to establish a hypothetically viable non-infringing substitute during the period of infringement, which could reduce the infringement profits owed to AstraZeneca.
January 16, 2018

Federal Court Rejects Apotex’s Judicial Review Application for Apo-Omeprazole Magnesium Tablets

2017 FC 857 - The Federal Court upheld the Minister of Health’s decision to cancel reconsideration for Apo-Omeprazole Magnesium Tablets manufactured by Apotex Inc. This is yet another failed attempt by Apotex to obtain approval for the magnesium tablet form of its anti-ulcer drug.
January 9, 2018
subject matter

Call Processing System Patent Rejected for Lack of Statutory Subject Matter and Obviousness

PAB 1420 - Canadian Patent Application No. 2,529,210 filed by Assurant Inc. for a system that routes customer calls based on a sales agent’s past performance was rejected by the Patent Appeal Board, at least for the reasons of non-statutory subject matter and obviousness.
January 2, 2018

Federal Court of Appeal Confirms Issued Patents cannot be Invalidated by Underpayment of an Administrative Fee

2017 FCA 201 - The FCA upheld the FC’s ruling against Apotex, that Pfizer's failure to pay the proper final fee for the issuance of a Canadian patent will not invalidate the patent.
December 19, 2017

Federal Court Upholds Pfizer’s Polymorph Patent for the Depression Drug PRISTIQ as Inventive and Useful

2017 FC 777 - The FC rejected Teva’s allegations that Pfizer's Canadian patent was obvious and lacked utility. The FC found that the POSITA would not have been able to predict the novel crystalline form taught by the patent, and that the subject-matter of the invention claimed in the patent was useful.
December 12, 2017

Federal Court shoots down an attempted revival of the promise doctrine

2017 FC 774 - The FC granted Pfizer's order pursuant to Section 6 of the PM(NOC) Regulations, prohibiting the Minister of Health from issuing a NOC to Apotex, with respect to a Canadian patent The FC found, on a balance of probabilities, that Apotex’s allegations of obviousness, inutility, non-infringement, overpromising, anticipation and double patenting were not justified.
December 5, 2017

Federal Court Declines Jurisdiction to Approve Third-Party Funding Agreements in the Private Litigation Context

2017 FC 826 - The FC declined to approve, or disapprove, Seedlings' litigation funding agreement with Bentham, where Bentham would fund Seedlings' patent litigation against Pfizer. The FC found that it lacked jurisdiction, as contractual matters are generally provincial in nature, and that only agreements related to class action proceedings would require the approval of the FC.
November 28, 2017

CIRA Gives Notorious Cybersquatters the Heave-ho

CIRA 344 - CIRA granted Virox its request to have the domain virox.ca transferred from Nameshield to itself, based on the domain being confusingly similar to Virox’s trademarks, Nameshield having registered the domain in bad faith and Nameshield having no legitimate interest in the domain.
November 21, 2017

Federal Court of Appeal rummages for the truth in Swiss luggage trademarks decision

2017 FCA 215 - The FCA found that trademarks owned by Travelway were confusingly similar to, and passing off on, trademarks owned by Wenger. The FCA's finding reversed a prior decision of the FC.
November 14, 2017
insomnia

Federal Court finds Insomnia-treating Drug Patent neither Invalid nor Infringed

2016 FC 1362 - The formulation patent for the insomnia-treating drug zolpidem was found to be substantially valid, but not infringed by Pharmascience's generic version of zolpidem.
November 7, 2017
tadalafil

Apotex Fails to Change FCA’s Opinion in Tadalafil Case

2016 FCA 267 - Apotex unsuccessfully sought to show that the FCA had erred in another decision by not following the SCC's decision in Whirlpool. Apotex also unsuccessfully argued that the FC had erred by finding the tadalafil patent to have sufficient disclosure.
October 31, 2017

Federal Court Affirms Price Regulation Schemes are intra vires

2016 FC 716 - The AG was successful in bringing a motion to strike Alexion's constitutional challenge to the patented medicines price regulation scheme in the Patent Act. The motion was brought on the ground that the application was bereft of any chance in light of a line of jurisprudence, which had fully and finally determined that these sanctions are intra vires and constitutional.