Our Blog

Benefits 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 More
Patenting Artificial Intelligence

January 05, 2018

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications are the focus of many emerging companies and many new products across a diverse number of fields. As such, it’s natural to consider whether patent protection may be available for various AI innovations. First, as with any other kind of invention,…

Read More
Don’t Cut Corners on Provisional Patent Filings

November 15, 2017

Patent offices often warn the public about blatant scams such as fake payment notifications sent by third parties, but do not generally warn the public about other less-overt rip-offs or pitfalls.  In many cases, practitioners that simply take a summary of an invention prepared by an inventor and…

Read More
Broadest Reasonable Interpretation Unreasonably Broad?

October 31, 2017

In US patent law, during patent examination, claims are to be given the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) consistent the specification. A pair of recent decisions of the US Federal Circuit explored this principle in the context of inter partes review and ex parte…

Read More
Proposed Amendments to the Patent Rules

October 12, 2017

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) recently engaged in public consultation on proposed amendments to Canada’s Patent Rules. The proposed Patent Rules, once implemented, will allow the coming-into-force of amendments to Canada’s Patent Act which, amongst other…

Read More
Further 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 More
Who owns an invention created by an employee?

August 21, 2017

When an employee conceives of an invention, who owns it? The employer or the employee? In Canada the general rule is that the employee owns his or her inventions in the absence of an agreement the contrary. Many employers address this through ensuring that employment agreements include a…

Read More
What 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 More
Recent Decisions Increase Canada’s Appeal as a Patent Filing Jurisdiction

July 11, 2017

In recent weeks Canadian courts have been busy issuing patent-related decisions and patent filers should take notice of some interesting developments which may enhance the appeal of Canada as a filing jurisdiction. Two decisions which were released to the public in the last two weeks make…

Read More
Unintended Effects: Impact of Making Changes to a U.S. Provisional when filing a Regular Patent Application

May 31, 2017

Provisional patent applications (PPAs) are often filed as part of a patent portfolio filing strategy. A PPA is not a regular patent application. A PPA will not be examined by any patent office and will not result in a granted patent. PPAs are unique to the United States patent regime. For example,…

Read More
Expediting Patent Prosecution in Canada

May 17, 2017

In Canada, as in many other jurisdictions, a patent application is only examined upon request. To avoid abandonment of an application, a request for examination must be made within five years of the filing date of the application. Applications are generally examined sequentially according to the order…

Read More
Pre-filing commercialization can undermine your patent rights

May 09, 2017

Most people are familiar with the principle that if you publicly disclose your invention you might lose your right to seek patent protection for that invention. Canada, the U.S. and a handful of other countries provide a bit of a grace period, but in general people try to ensure that they file a patent…

Read More
Innovation in the 2017 federal budget – all talk, no action

March 22, 2017

The Canadian federal government released its 2017 budget on March 22, 2017.  It was billed in pre-budget leaks as the “innovation” budget. Since coming to power in 2015, the current Liberal government has been fond of using the word “innovation” as often as possible in its policy statements and marketing. …

Read More
Do 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 More
Should a Patent Applicant File Prior Art at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office?

February 14, 2017

In the United States, “[e]ach individual associated with the filing and prosecution of a patent application … [has] a duty to disclose to the Office all information known to that individual to be material to patentability” (see e.g., 37 CFR 1.56, 1.97, 1.98). Prior art is filed with the United States…

Read More

Tags

accelerated examination, accounting of profits, allowance, anticipation, artificial intelligence, assignments, blockchain, budget, confusion, copyright, costs, duty of disclosure, early disclosure, examination, filing strategies, fintech, graphical user interfaces, industrial design, inventorship, open source, opposition, patent appeal board, patent search, patentable subject matter, patents, PCT, prior use rights, promises of the patent, provisional patents, software patents, sufficient disclosure, Technological Protection Measures, TPM, trade secrets, trademarks


Archive
Would you like to learn more about the work we do?

Call us at (416) 479-8647 or contact us at mailbox@rowandlaw.com