Blog

September 27, 2017
Coleen Morrison

Room for doubt?

CIPO has provided some insight to efforts in advance of the implementation of changes to the Canadian trademark system. The actions are comforting even if the statistics suggest there may be cause for concern in respect of recent Examination quality.
September 26, 2017

Canada’s Supreme Court Does Not “Like” Facebook’s Forum Selection Clause

2017 SCC 33 - The SCC allowed Douez’s appeal and found strong reasons not to enforce the forum selection clause present in Facebook Inc.’s terms of use on its social media website, Facebook.com.
September 19, 2017

Federal Court finds Expert Blinding to be One Factor in Assessing Weight Given to Expert Evidence

2016 FC 857 - The FC granted Gilead’s application for an order prohibiting the Minister of Health from issuing a Notice of Compliance to Apotex in respect of its Notice of Allegation until the expiry of Gilead’s Canadian patent.
September 12, 2017
application

Federal Court Deems Patent Application “Dead” Following Failure to Respond to Requisition

2017 FC 402 - The FC dismissed the University of Alberta’s application for judicial review of three CIPO decisions, effectively refusing to declare the patent application in question in good standing following the failure of the original applicants to reply to a requisition and to apply to reinstate the application within the 12-month grace period.
September 5, 2017

Canada’s Federal Court Confirms it has Exclusive Jurisdiction to Amend an Issued Patent

2016 FC 229 - The FC heard and granted an uncontested application by Novartis, pursuant to sections 31(3) and 52 of the Patent Act, to vary all entries in the records of the Patent Office with regards to the inventorship of a Canadian Patent.
August 29, 2017

Federal Court Awards Dow over $644 Million in Damages

2017 FC 637 - The FC addressed three outstanding issues in the calculation of damages and profits and ordered Nova to pay Dow over $644 million for infringing Dow's Canadian patent.
August 22, 2017

Federal Court of Appeal remits decision based on hearsay evidence back to the Federal Court for redetermination

2016 FCA 161 - The FCA remitted a proceeding back to the FC for redetermination after agreeing with Pfizer that part of Teva’s evidence in the FC decision was based on hearsay.
August 15, 2017

Federal Court Rejects Bayer’s Request for Corrected Priority Date

2017 FC 178 - The FC dismissed a request by Bayer for judicial review of a Commissioner’s decision refusing to change the priority filing date for Bayer’s Canadian patent application, based on provisions in the Patent Act and Patent Rules relating to priority claims.
August 8, 2017

IPTV case shows that Interpretation of IT Patents may be 0’s or 1’s

2017 FC 6 - MediaTube brought allegations of infringement against Bell over one of its IT patents, asserting that Bell had infringed the patent with Bell’s IPTV services. The FC deemed the patent to be valid, but not infringed. Costs were decided in Bell’s favour and elevated to reflect the punitive damages claimed by MediaTube and the weak argument they had put forth.
August 1, 2017

Federal Court of Canada finds that complexity of issues or conflicting evidence are not bars to a summary trial

2016 FC 1117 - Cascade brought a claim that Kinshofer had infringed its Canadian patent related to a safety locking device for quick couplers. After carrying out a claim construction, the FC did not find that the patent had been infringed.
July 25, 2017

FC Awards Costs Award at 50% Elevation of Tariff B Due to Poor Conduct

Pollard Banknote Limited v Babn Technologies Corp, 2016 FC 1193 Poor conduct during patent litigation can result in significantly elevated costs awards, even if the conduct […]
July 18, 2017

Federal Court of Canada Dismisses Motion for Interlocutory Injunction and Orders Security for Costs

2016 FC 606 - The FC dismissed TearLab’s application for an interlocutory injunction preventing I-MED from selling its i-Pen System, and ordered TearLab to pay security for costs.
July 11, 2017

Supreme Court of Canada upholds worldwide interlocutory injunction against Google

2017 SCC 34 - Canada's Supreme Court dismissed Google Inc.’s appeal and upheld the worldwide interlocutory injunction against it.
July 5, 2017

FC Strikes PM(NOC) Application Due to No Chance of Success

2016 FC 525 - The Federal Court granted Celltrion’s motion to strike Janssen’s application pursuant to section 6(5)(b) of the PM(NOC) Regulations.
June 30, 2017

Canada’s Supreme Court Abolishes Controversial “Promise Doctrine”

2017 SCC 36 - The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the “promise doctrine” of Canadian patent law in favour of merely requiring a single use related to the nature of the subject-matter of the invention having a scintilla of utility.
June 27, 2017

ICSID Tribunal dismisses Eli Lilly’s NAFTA claim against Canada

Case No. UNCT/14/2 - An ICSID Tribunal dismissed Eli Lilly’s claim against Canada, which was brought in relation to two Canadian patents owned by Eli Lilly that had been invalidated for failing to provide the utility they promised.
June 20, 2017

FC Finds Torque Anchor Patents Invalid or Not Infringed and Violation of Section 7(a) of Trade-marks Act

2016 FC 1279 - The FC found that API violated section 7(a) of the Trade-marks Act by making false or misleading statements tending to discredit the business, goods, or services of Excalibre, when it sent cease and desist letters to some of Excalibre’s customers.
June 13, 2017

FC Denies Prohibition Order Request; Finds Expert Blinding Persuasive But Not Primary Interest

2016 FC 382 - The FC concluded that Apotex’s allegations of non-infringement in respect of Shire's Canadian Patent were justified and accordingly denied Shire’s requested prohibition order.
June 6, 2017

Allergan fails to demonstrate to FC that Apotex’s allegations of invalidity are not justified

2016 FC 344 - Apotex alleged in its Notice of Allegation and submissions that the ‘632 Patent was invalid because it was obvious and lacked utility. The FC found that the allegation was justified.
May 30, 2017

Federal Court of Appeal reverses Federal Court’s finding of a settlement agreement between Apotex and Allergan

2016 FCA 155 - The FCA overturned a FC decision in which it was held that the parties had settled the litigation, and had issued an order enforcing the terms of the settlement. The FCA found that a settlement had not in fact been reached, set aside the FC’s order and granted Apotex its appeal and costs.