Federal Court

June 20, 2022
Photograph of three baseballs on the grass, representing three strikes.

Three Strikes: Federal Court Rejects CIPO’s Approach to Software Patent Eligibility

2022 FC 923: For the third time since 2011, CIPO’s approach to software patent eligibility has been struck down by the Federal Court.
May 30, 2022
Photograph of a seedling plant sprouting in the soil.

Federal Court of Canada Squashes Contempt of Court Claim

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.
March 26, 2021
Photograph of an oil and gas pump.

Federal Court Applies Its Own Claim Construction to Infringement Case

2021 FC 85: The Federal Court upheld the validity of all claims, but found that PetroChina was not infringing Maoz Betser-Zilevitch's patent for an SAGD.
February 16, 2021
Close-up photograph of server with multiple ethernet cords plugged in

Patent Appeal Board Rules Choueifaty Patent Application to Be Patentable

PAB 1556: Canada’s Patent Appeal Board reconsidered Mr. Choueifaty’s patent application for a computer-implemented method of managing portfolio assets.
March 18, 2020
Team of inventors wearing white lab coats in a laboratory.

Federal Court Removes Inventors from Four Patents

2020 FC 338 – The Court concluded that the six individuals were listed as inventors “by inadvertence in the process of the division.”
December 2, 2019
Photo of a laptop in the dark with the keyboard illuminated by the screen

TekSavvy Appeals Canada’s First Site-Blocking Order

2019 FC 1432 - TekSavvy appeals a recent site-blocking order against an illegitimate streaming service, claiming the order contravenes freedom of expression.
October 28, 2019
Flax seeds (or linseeds)

Foreign Prosecution History is Now Admissible in “Extraordinary Circumstances”

2019 FC 1233 – In a dispute over flax seeds, Canada's Federal Court says foreign prosecution history may be admissible under the new s. 53.1 of the Patent Act.
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.
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.
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.
October 24, 2017

Federal Court Adjourns Motion for Confidentiality Order

2017 FC 548 - In this application for judicial review over s. 5 of the PM(NOC) Regulations, the FC agreed with the AG who argued that since another innovator also had patents listed on the Patent Register pertaining to products to which Innovator Company made comparisons, the other innovator was a necessary respondent to the application.
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.
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.
May 16, 2017

Dow Awarded an Accounting of Profits including Springboard Profits from Infringer’s Ramped-up Sales

2017 FC 350 - The Federal Court outlined in this decision how the Dow Chemical Company should be compensated by Nova Chemicals Corporation for its infringement of Dow’s patent.
April 25, 2017

Federal Court finds foreign, non-exclusive licensee entitled to damages

2016 FC 593 - The FC awarded Janssen Canada and Janssen US almost $19 million in total damages for Teva's infringement of a Japanese entity's patent, for which Janssen US had never even exercised its licence in Canada.
April 4, 2017

FCA holds FC erred by rejecting relevance of non-infringing alternatives

2017 FCA 23 - The FCA found that the FC had erred by rejecting the relevance of non-infringing alternatives available to Apotex, so as to reduce the accounting of profits award to ADIR for infringement of its patent. The single issue was remitted back to the FC.