The Top Line
Insights on the latest legal news and developments from our expert lawyers,
with a handy top-line summary for busy people like you.
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CIPO Annual Fee Adjustment: 2025 Fees Now in Effect
Effective January 1, 2025, certain fees relating to intellectual property increased by 4.4%. Trademark owners and applicants should be aware of the annual adjustment for fees relating to trademarks, geographical indications and official marks to ensure compliance with the Trademarks Regulations and avoid administrative delays.
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Pics or it Didn’t Happen? Federal Court says Otherwise
In a recent trademark appeal, the Federal Court clarified that photographs or other representative images are not required to establish “use” of a trademark pursuant to s. 4 of the Trademarks Act in the context of a s. 45 cancellation proceeding. While a bare statement that a registered trademark was used in accordance with the…
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New Year, New Register: TMOB Resolves to Trim the Trademark Fat
The Trademark Registrar launched a surprising new pilot project and will begin issuing s. 45 expungement notices against randomly selected trademark registrations to remove “deadwood” and collect data. Trademark owners whose registrations are selected will likely be forced to provide evidence of use, and potentially incur costs in the process to avoid expungement. Questions remain…
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If I’ve told you once… FCA denies PMPRB jurisdiction over unpatented medicines (again)
The Patented Medicines Pricing Review Board does not have jurisdiction to regulate unpatented (or formerly patented) medicines, the FCA ruled again. In this case, the PMRPB was not permitted to seek pricing information for DIFFERIN beyond a limited period after patent expiry. To rule otherwise would reach beyond the constitutional powers of the federal government.
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No free samples: Federal Court clarifies the standard for compelling sample production
The Federal Court in Bayer v Amgen offered key insights into the evidence needed to compel production of samples for testing. The Court balanced the “permissive approach” from prior caselaw with the overarching requirement that parties must demonstrate a “reasonable possibility” that the proposed testing will reveal something useful to the Court. Here, mere existence…
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For [Solicitor’s] Eyes Only: Impulse Downhole Solutions passes the “unusual circumstances” test
In a patent infringement proceeding, the plaintiff successfully obtained a “Solicitors’ Eyes Only” (SEO) designation for financial and technical documents. The company also persuaded the court to restrict access to technical documents for the director of a competing company by arguing that his inability to “unsee” technical information would inevitably harm their business.
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![For [Solicitor’s] Eyes Only: Impulse Downhole Solutions passes the “unusual circumstances” test](https://www.gilbertslaw.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/confidential.jpg)
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Perplexity AI sued for copyright infringement: a summary via Perplexity
In October 2024, Perplexity AI, an AI (LLM) conversational search engine, was sued by publishers including Dow Jones and NY Post for copyright infringement in the United States. For fun and for curiosity, we used Perplexity AI’s chat engine to analyze and summarize the lawsuit against itself.
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Federal Court maintains high bar for standing in judicial review of NOC decisions
The Federal Court held that standing for judicial review requires a party to be directly affected by an administrative decision. Neither commercial/economic impact nor indirect impact on legal rights are sufficient to ground standing.
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Patent claims held invalid for being broader than the inventor “contemplated”
The Federal Court found that claims of three water slide patents were invalid for being broader than contemplated by the inventor. This is an interesting decision because there are few, if any, examples in Canadian patent law where overbreadth is the primary or sole independent ground of invalidity. Furthermore, the focus of this decision on…
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