Publications

April 22, 2022

Celebrating youth innovation!

This year’s World IP Day is upon us, with the theme “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future”. In honor of this theme (and at the risk of making our adult readers feel a bit less accomplished), we thought it would be appropriate to highlight some of these wonderful inventions of young, (…)

November 2, 2021

Canadian Patent Practice Update: Act Now to Avoid Excess Claim Fees

Excess claim fees on the horizon As reported earlier, the Canadian government published proposed amendments to the Patent Rules on July 3, 2021. A significant component of the proposal is the introduction of excess claim fees on the order of $100 CAD for each claim beyond 20 claims, which will be (…)

July 14, 2021

Further Streamlining of Canadian Patent Examination on the Horizon

Canadian Patent Practice has undergone several changes in recent years, in many cases to fulfill the requirements of various international treaties/agreements, including those of the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). On July 3, 2021, the Canadian (…)

December 21, 2020

Ho-Ho Holiday Themed Patents

 At Lavery, we spend a lot of time searching patent databases on behalf of our clients. Occasionally, we come across certain patents/applications whose cleverness and creativity make a lasting impression. At this time of year, our attention is naturally drawn to those that are holiday themed. And (…)

October 29, 2020

Canadian Patents: What to Keep in Mind One Year After the Coming into Force of the New Rules?

The first anniversary of the entry into force of the new Canadian Patent Rules, which significantly changed certain practices surrounding the filing and prosecution of patent applications in Canada, is an opportunity to look back at the major changes that have had a significant impact on Canadian (…)

August 31, 2020

Federal Court clarifies the assessment of patent-eligible subject matter in Canada

In Yves Choueifaty v. Attorney General of Canada1, the Federal Court of Canada has issued a significant decision concerning the assessment of patent-eligible subject matter, including the approach to be used for such assessment during the examination of Canadian patent applications. Historical (…)

July 16, 2020

Further COVID-19 Update on Canadian IP

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has now made a further announcement concerning the extension of deadlines, to the effect that  deadlines falling within March 16 to August 7, 2020, are extended to August 10, 2020. CIPO is otherwise still open for business and our IP team members (…)

March 18, 2020

COVID-19: Update on Canadian IP

 The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has made a further announcement concerning the extension of deadlines, to the effect that deadlines falling within March 16 to April 30, 2020 are extended to May 1, 2020. CIPO is otherwise still open for business and our intellectual property team (…)

October 25, 2019

Changes to the Canadian Patent Rules came into force on October 30^th 2019

The new Patent Rules, as well as certain amendments to the Patent Act, came into force on October 30, 2019. These changes implement the Patent Law Treaty and reduce the risk to applicants of a loss of rights but also bring about practice changes worthy of mention. Canadian national phase of a PCT (…)

July 10, 2019

Ready, set go! Changes to Canadian patent practice coming into force later this year

The Government of Canada has just announced that the new Patent Rules, as well as certain amendments to the Patent Act, will come into force on October 30, 2019. These changes implement the Patent Law Treaty and reduce the risk of a loss of rights to Applicants but also bring about practice changes (…)

November 1, 2018

The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA): What this means for Canadian IP law

As we reported on October 15, 2018, Canada, Mexico, and the United States were finally able to agree on the terms of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) on September 30, 2018. The USMCA is intended to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has been in place for (…)

October 5, 2018

Use it and (maybe) lose it : Prior use and patentability

It is generally universal in patenting that an invention cannot have been previously disclosed to the public in order to qualify for patent protection. Canadian law stipulates that the subject matter of a patent claim must not have been disclosed “in such a manner that the subject-matter became (…)

August 1, 2017

Medical use claims not involving the professional skill of a physician are patent-eligible in Canada.

In a previous newsletter 1, we discussed a change in Canadian patent practice in respect of the patent-eligibility of claims relating to medical uses, further to a decision from the Federal Court 2. Following this decision, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) issued a revised Practice (…)