Patent Validity

October 5, 2016

“More or Less Self-evident” Remains the Standard in the Obvious-to-Try Test

2015 FCA 286 - An attack on the Federal Court’s slight rewording of the obvious-to-try test has proven unsuccessful. The FC referring to a 'fair expectation of success'" was not a reviewable error.
October 5, 2016

Canadian Version of Alice Financial Services Patent Rejected for Lack of Statutory Subject Matter

PAB 1408 - The Canadian version of one of the computer-implemented financial services patent applications from the famous U.S. case on software patent eligibility, Alice Corp v CLS Bank International, 573 U.S. __, 134 S. Ct. 2347 (2014), was rejected for lack of patentable subject matter.
September 30, 2016

Software and Data Analytics Patents still a Challenge in Canada

PAB 1407 - The PAB rejected the computer-implemented data analytics patent application of Canadian Patent Application No. 2,798,566, entitled “Identified Customer Reporting”, for lack of statutory subject matter, since no physical feature – no computing device – was found to be essential to the claims.
September 6, 2016

Patent Application for Blackjack Variation Rejected as Unpatentable Subject Matter

In Re Smith, (Fed. Cir. 2015-1664) - A patent application for a variation on the blackjack game was rejected as unpatentable after the CAFC applied the two-step test for patentable subject matter from Mayo and Alice.
August 22, 2016

FC Bifurcates Infringement & Validity Issues from Section 8 PM(NOC) Proceeding in Hopes of Settlement

2016 FC 720 - The FC bifurcated the issues of infringement and validity from any other section 8 issue in hopes that bifurcation would likely lead to a settlement of all the issues between the parties.
August 8, 2016

FC Calls on Opening Canadian Patent Prosecution File Histories for Claim Construction

2016 FC 883 - The Federal Court followed the longstanding rule against the use of patent prosecution file history in interpreting the claims of a patent, but made a strong case for why the patent prosecution file history is worth considering, as is common practice in the U.S.
May 6, 2016

Law Remains Unsettled Regarding Appropriate Date for Assessing Obviousness-type Double Patenting

2015 FC 875 - The FC noted that the law is unsettled when it comes to determining the appropriate date for assessing obvious-type double patenting.
July 3, 2013

FC Construes Claim, Holds “a” Means “one”

Zero Spill Systems (Int’l) Inc. v. 614248 Alberta Ltd. – 2013 FC 616 This action concerns allegations of infringement of two Canadian Patents No. 2,258,064 (064 […]
July 3, 2013

In Echo of SCC’s Sildenafil Decision, the US CAFC Upholds Invalidation of Claims to a Family of Compounds for Non-enablement

Wyeth v. Abbot Labs (Fed. Cir. 2013) Wyeth appealed from the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey’s grant of summary judgment that claims […]
February 27, 2013

Teva and Apotex’s Allegations, that the GLEEVEC Patent Is Invalid, Are Not Justified

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. v. Apotex Inc., 2013 FC 142 Novartis is the owner of Canadian Patent No. 2,093,203 (the '203 Patent) covering imatinib mesylate, the […]