Summary
August 30, 2023
Fed. Cir. 2021-2063, 2021-2065: Sales of a product can be used to prove the inventiveness of a patent, but a US court warns that free samples are not relevant to patentability.
August 14, 2023
2023 FCA 168: In its long-awaited decision, the FCA reiterated the importance of judicial minimalism and rejected a structured analytical framework.
July 13, 2023
US Supreme Court, No. 22-148: Parodies are generally immune from trademark infringement, but how much can you spoof? Jack Daniels hounded a dog toy company for making a copycat toy.
June 1, 2023
No. 21-757 (Supreme Court May 18, 2023) The Supreme Court of the United States applied bargain theory in its long-awaited decision regarding the enablement requirement of the Patent Act.
May 11, 2023
Since 2020, the USPTO has been denying requests for post-grant validity challenges based on the controversial Fintiv rule.
May 2, 2023
Fed. Cir. No. 2021-2320, 2021-2376: Typically patent drafters omit phrases like “at least one” from patent claims to improve readability, but a recent court decision may reverse the trend.
March 22, 2023
2023 FC 115: The Court found that the omission of the third inventor was a result of inadvertence, rather than delay, and allowed the correction.
February 9, 2023
2023 FCA 4: The prefix "pro" did little to make Puma's "procat" mark distinctive over Caterpillar's CAT & Triangle Design.
January 20, 2023
CAFC No. 22-1595: In this precedential decision on induced infringement, the Federal Circuit clarified that “past conduct is relevant to what will happen in the future”.
December 22, 2022
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that dependent claims invalidated by collateral estoppel also invalidated the parental independent claim.
November 29, 2022
2022 SCC 43: The Supreme Court of Canada handed down a decision that awards Dow Chemical $644 million—the largest monetary offering in a Canadian patent lawsuit.
October 25, 2022
2022 QCCQ 6675: Operating as "Fédération des Inventors du Québec", Varin offered to protect inventions but never filed a single patent application at CIPO.
August 18, 2022
2022 FCA 142: The Court also commented on the relevant date for determining if an invention has been sufficiently described in the patent application.
June 30, 2022
2022 FCA 118: The appeal court saw no reason to interfere with a trial court decision that favoured MEG Energy in its ongoing patent dispute with inventor Jason Swist.
May 30, 2022
In 2021, the Federal Court found GreenBlue infringed Deeproot's patents and granted an injunction. In 2022, the court was unconvinced that GreenBlue violated the injunction.
May 12, 2022
Under the “on-sale bar”, privately offering to sell an invention before filing a patent application can void the patent rights in all but a few permissible scenarios.
April 20, 2022
The Federal Court disagreed with Health Canada's interpretation of data protection regulations, once again reversing approval of pediatric drug RUZURGI.
April 11, 2022
New trademark registrations can be opposed by business owners who are concerned that the mark would cause confusion with their own registered trademark.
March 7, 2022
Travel Sentry, Inc. v David A. Tropp, No. 2021-1908 (Fed. Cir., Feb. 14, 2022). The patents claimed an economic practice and method of organizing human activity, which is not subject-matter that can be protected under the patent system.
February 24, 2022
The US CAFC ruled that an examiner is a "person of ordinary skill in the art" and is owed an appropriate level of deference.