The Curious Case of Benjamin Moore
June 20, 2022
The Canadian jurisprudence on patentable subject matter has evolved since the Supreme Court of Canada’s pronouncements in Free World Trust and Whirlpool, but clarity of guidance regarding eligibility has remained elusive for patent rights owners and practitioners. The Federal Court’s…
Read More2021 Patent Appeal Board Statistics
March 22, 2022
Patent applicants with computer-implemented inventions may find some reassurance in the 2021 Canadian Patent Appeal Board (“PAB”) statistics. Despite a general sense that the PAB is hostile to these types of inventions, the statistics reveal that computer-related subject matter rejections are over-turned…
Read MoreFurther Analysis on Patenting Computer-Implemented Inventions in Canada
June 22, 2021
The question of whether a claimed invention includes patentable subject matter often entails a complex and multi-pronged analysis of the language of the patent specification. In late 2020, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office provided guidance in its Practice Notice, “Patentable Subject-Matter…
Read MoreNew Patent Appeal Board decisions shine light on CIPO’s application of Choueifaty to patentable subject matter rejections
May 19, 2021
The Canadian Patent Appeal Board (PAB) has now started releasing Commissioner’s Decisions rendered since the Federal Court’s decision in Choueifaty v. Canada (AG), 2020 FC 837, and since the Office issued…
Read MoreSoftware inventions get huge boost from Federal Court of Canada
August 26, 2020
The Federal Court of Canada just delivered a stinging rebuke to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) for its handling of patentable subject matter rejections in Choueifaty v. Attorney General of Canada,…
Read MorePatent Appeal Board Pilot Program for High-Tech Inventions
January 15, 2020
The Canadian Patent Office has recently announced a new pilot project related to the Patent Appeal Board (“PAB”). The pilot project begins January 20, 2020 and will be in effect for a period of 12 months. The new pilot project deals with high-tech (electrical/computer/software) applications…
Read MoreBenefits of a Canadian Patent Filing for High-Tech Innovators
January 16, 2018
Treatment of computer-implemented inventions by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has remained consistent for many years. CIPO’s predictable treatment of computer-implemented inventions has likely contributed to the uptick in computer-implemented invention patent filings since 2011. …
Read MoreFurther Discussion of Subject Matter Eligibility by Patent Appeal Board
September 07, 2017
On the heels of its decisions relating to patentability of graphical user interfaces (previously discussed here) from late last year, the Canadian Patent Appeal Board (PAB) has provided further insight on the issue…
Read MoreWhat about Schlumberger?
July 25, 2017
For decades, Schlumberger Canada Ltd v Canada (Commissioner of Patents), [1981] 56 CPR (2d) 204 (FCA), was the only Canadian decision on computer-implemented inventions. In that case, the court upheld the Commissioner’s rejection of an invention implemented by way of software. The Federal…
Read MoreDo FinTech Patents Have a Future?
February 22, 2017
Every day brings a new flurry of articles about FinTech (“financial technology”) startups and their potential to be disruptive forces. Traditional banking and financial industry players are said to be at great risk. However, many of them have seen this coming and are preparing to defend their turf.…
Read MoreTreatment of GUI Patent Claims in Canada
February 07, 2017
Canadian patent examiners sometimes object to graphical user interface claims on the basis that they are unpatentable since they have “purely intellectual or aesthetic significance.” There is an old line of decisions that hold that something having solely intellectual or aesthetic significance is…
Read More