The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has recently issued guidance (see here) warning clients of various scam letters or emails that are being sent to holders of patent and trademark applications and registrations. This problem is not unique to Canada. Imposters also impersonate other Intellectual Property Offices including the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) which processes international (or PCT) patent applications (see here) and the US Patent and Trademark Office (see here). If you receive a suspicious document relating to your Intellectual Property, please contact us to verify whether it is a scam notice.Read More →

On July 14, 2016, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a Memorandum to its Patent Examining Corps indicating that the recent court rulings in Rapid Litigation Management v. Cellzdirect and in Sequenom v. Ariosa  are consistent with the subject matter eligibility framework employed by the USPTO in patent examination.  As such, it proposes no changes to the framework. The Memorandum includes commentary on how the decision in Rapid Litigation Management clarifies the subject matter eligibility test for determining whether claims are directed to a patent ineligible concept such as a law of nature. In Rapid Litigation Management, the illustrative claim held valid by theRead More →

Since March 3, 2011, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has had in a place a green technology “fast-track” program with the objective of expediting the procurement of patent protection for green technologies. Provided that a patent application relates to “technology the commercialization of which would help to resolve or mitigate environmental impacts or conserve the natural environment and resources”, examination of the application can be accelerated without the payment of any additional fees to CIPO. Under accelerated examination, an Office Action is typically received within 1 to 3 months of requesting participation in the “fast-track” program. This is a significant reduction from the 12Read More →