Last May, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted a new treaty related genetic resources and traditional knowledge thereof (the “Treaty”). The Treaty will impose new disclosure requirements on patent...more
After nearly a quarter of a century, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has approved the passage of a new IP treaty: the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional...more
The outlines of global design protection change regularly, with every year bringing significant updates in at least some major jurisdictions. In general the changes bend toward greater alignment and the emergence of...more
Summary - Last year the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), under a threat of a vote, accelerated negotiations on an international legal instrument related to intellectual property (IP) and genetic resources...more
On February 5, 2022 China became the 94th country to join the Hague System which will go into force on May 5, 2022...more
On December 10, 2019, Canada, the United States and Mexico signed the Protocol of Amendment to the Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States and Canada (commonly referred to as the USMCA). The...more
The Patent Law Treaty (PLT), administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), was adopted on May 31, 2000, with the aim of harmonizing and streamlining formal procedures with respect to patent applications...more
On October 30, 2019, amendments to the CanadianPatent Act and Patent Rules will come into force. The amendments, as reviewed in detail in our previous article, are largely geared to implementing the Patent Law Treaty....more
Autumn is known as a season of change, and this is certainly holding true for Canada’s patent system. On October 30, 2019, a host of amendments to Canada’s Patent Rules will come into effect to implement previously enacted...more
On July 30, 2019, Canada acceded to the Patent Law Treaty. This accession marks the near completion of a long and ambitious journey by Canada to modernize its patent, trademark and industrial design laws and to harmonize...more
Submitting priority documents for industrial design applications in Canada has just become more efficient! On April 1, 2019, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) continued the modernization of Canada’s industrial...more
2018 served up a smorgasbord of disparate patent law developments in Canada. Most notably, ratification of a new trade agreement negotiated amongst Canada, the United States and Mexico would require introduction of a patent...more
After more than a year of negotiations, Canada reached a new free-trade agreement with Mexico and the United States minutes before the midnight deadline on September 30, 2018....more
On June 27, 2018 the Government of Canada published the new Industrial Design Regulations in the Canada Gazette and set November 5, 2018 as the date on which amendments to the Industrial Design Act and Regulations will come...more
A new USPTO fee schedule took effect on January 16, 2018, which usually means that all fees must be paid at the new (higher) rate. However, thanks to revisions to 35 USC § 151 effected by the Patent Law Treaties...more
Canada is in the midst of a substantial overhaul of its intellectual property statutes and regulations that will have wide-ranging implications for patent, industrial design, trade-mark and copyright law as well as procedure....more
Since the Patent Law Treaty Implementation Act took effect on December 18, 2013, applicants may have noticed that they are being given a longer period of time to respond to certain Office Actions, such as Restriction...more
Reflecting upon the events of the past twelve months, Patent Docs presents its seventh annual list of top biotech/pharma patent stories. For 2013, we identified fourteen stories that were covered on Patent Docs last year...more
On October 21, 2013 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a Notice of Final Rulemaking to revise its rules of practice to reflect the Patent Law Treaty and title II of the Patent Law Treaties Implementation...more
In April, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a notice in the Federal Register (78 Fed. Reg. 21788) proposing changes to the rules of practice for consistency with the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) and title II of the...more
While U.S. patent practitioners have been focusing on the changes to U.S. patent law embodied in the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), Congress has taken additional steps to harmonize and streamline patent application...more