Ownership & Inventorship

From the moment that an invention crystallizes in the mind of an inventor, an inchoate ownership right is created of which the inventor is the first owner. Anyone wishing to acquire that right must claim title through the inventor. The inventor is the person who conceives of a new and useful art, process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter, and reduces it to a definite and practical shape.

November 8, 2014

Federal Court Denies Co-Inventorship to Marketing Collaborators

Drexan Energy Systems Inc v Canada (Commissioner of Patents), 2014 FC 887 - The Court found that two out of four contributors to the invention could not be added to the list of inventors because their contribution essentially amounted to suggesting desired features of the invention and communicating feedback from potential customers, which did not constitute an inventive contribution.
October 18, 2014

Federal Court Holds Failure to Disclose Public Servant Status in Patent Application is an Untrue Material Allegation

Louis Brown et al v HMTQ et al, 2014 FC 831 - Canada successfully argued that the inventor made an untrue material allegation for having not indicated in the patent application that he was a public servant, but whether this would invalidate the patent was considered a genuine issue requiring a trial.
February 7, 2013

Uncontested S. 52 Application to Add True Inventors to and Remove Mis-named Inventors from the Patent Office Records

Segatoys Co., Ltd. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2013 FC 98 Segatoys applied under section 52 of the Patent Act for an order amending the named inventors […]