IP(DC) Podcast: Patent Battles – New Patent Initiatives on the Hill & Notable CAFC/SCOTUS Decisions
Podcast: Patentable Subject Matter in 2019
In this edition of The Precedent, we outline the decision in Steuben Foods Inc. v. Shibuya Hoppmann Corp. This case addresses whether the reverse doctrine of equivalents (RDOE) is a viable defense to patent infringement....more
In Matco Tools Corporation v Canada (Attorney General), 2025 FC 118 (Matco Tools), the Federal Court found that a decision by the Commissioner of Patents to refuse to reinstate a patent application following the failure to...more
On January 24, in Steuben Foods, Inc v. Shibuya Hoppman Corporation, the Federal Circuit found that Steuben had made a compelling argument that the common law Reverse Doctrine of Equivalents (RDOE) did not survive the 1952...more
Steuben Foods, Inc. v. Shibuya Hoppman Corp., Appeal No. 2023-1790 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 24, 2025) In its only precedential patent decision this week, the Federal Circuit addressed an “anachronistic exception, long mentioned but...more
On December 23, 2023, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) held that it was an abuse of process for Apotex to raise invalidity in defending actions under the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations (Regulations)...more
On January 11, 2024, the Federal Court released its decision concluding that the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB or Board) was reasonable in its redetermination that the invention of Patent No. 2,478,237 (the 237...more
Eli Lilly v Teva, Pharmascience, Riva, Apotex, Mylan (tadalafil, CIALIS) – Following a summary trial, Lilly’s infringement actions were dismissed: composition claims directed to “a physiologically acceptable salt” of...more
On Friday, August 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals For The District Of Columbia Circuit affirmed dismissal of an antitrust action brought by the Federal Trade Commission regarding Endo Pharmaceuticals’s grant of an...more
In re: John L. Couvaras, Appeal No. 2022-1489 (Fed. Cir. June 14, 2023) In our Case of the Week, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a Patent Trial and Appeals Board decision that a patent application’s...more
On 2 March, the UK Supreme Court heard the arguments in Thaler v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, the latest in a growing line of international jurisprudence grappling with issues raised by the use of...more
On December 5, 2022, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) dismissed Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC) and sixteen innovative pharmaceutical companies’ appeal regarding the validity of the amended basket of comparator countries...more
Polaris Innovations Ltd. v. Brent, Appeal No. 2019-1483 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 15, 2022) - In our Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit provided what appears to be its first precedential opinion construing Section 317 of the...more
On March 8, 2021, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed Apotex’s claims against Eli Lilly (Lilly) under the Statute of Monopolies, Trademarks Act, and common law conspiracy relating to Canadian Patent No. 2,041,113...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently confirmed in Thaler v. Vidalthat artificial intelligence (AI) agents cannot be listed as an inventor on a patent because the plain text of the Patent Act requires...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that an artificial intelligence (AI) software system cannot be listed as an inventor on a patent application because the Patent Act requires an “inventor” to be a natural...more
PATENT CASE OF THE WEEK - Thaler v. Vidal, Appeal No. 2021-2347 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 5, 2022) - In its only precedential patent decision this week, the Federal Circuit answered a question that had long occupied the musings...more
Over the past few years technology evangelist and inventor Stephen Thaler, together with the Artificial Inventor Project, has campaigned for patent law changes across jurisdictions to recognize artificial intelligence (AI) as...more
On the first of February, in Qualcomm Inc. v. Apple Inc., the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“the CAFC”) vacated and remanded the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Board”) on two inter partes review (“IPR”)...more
Our previous blog posts, Artificial Intelligence as the Inventor of Life Sciences Patents? and Update on Artificial Intelligence: Court Rules that AI Cannot Qualify As “Inventor,” discuss recent inventorship issues...more
Section 287 of the U.S. Patent Act gives a patent owner the ability to recover damages for patent infringement in two ways: (1) if a patented article is marked; or (2) if actual notice of infringement has been provided. The...more
Functional claims took another hit at the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The patent at issue broadly claimed a three-part chimeric antigen receptor including all scFvs that bind to any target. The Court found written...more
Update: On September 29, 2021, Canada applied to the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal (Docket No. 39858). In September 2017, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB or Board) decided (see article here)...more
On July 28, 2021, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) dismissed Seedling’s appeal from the Federal Court decision of Justice Grammond (2020 FC 1, previously reported), which concluded that certain claims of Seedlings' LifeCard...more
Addressing whether the term “exceptional case” in the Patent Act differs in meaning from the same term used in the Lanham Act, the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld an award of attorneys’ fees granted under a...more
In the first appellate decision relating to Certificates of Supplementary Protection (CSPs), the Federal Court of Appeal has allowed the appeal of the Minister of Health (the Minister), setting aside the lower court judgment....more