Category Archives: Canada

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation v. Conservative Party of Canada Decision and Fair Dealing

TV camera

The Federal Court recently released its decision in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation v. Conservative Party of Canada, 2021 FC 425 [CBC] in which it found that the Conservative Party’s use of CBC’s copyrighted materials in their political campaign fell under the fair dealing exception in the Copyright Act. The court deemed the Conservative Party’s use of substantial sections of CBC’s original works to be fair because the usage fell under the category of criticism. In making this decision, the court left the door open for future users of copyrighted materials to argue that their use falls under the fair dealing exception for criticism even when the reproduced work itself is not the target for criticism.

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Important changes are proposed to Canadian patent prosecution

Parliament Ottawa

The Government of Canada is proposing regulatory amendments to the Canadian Patent Rules. The proposed amendments were published on July 3, 2021 and the public has 30 days to provide comments[1]. The final rules are expected to be published in fall 2021 and implemented in late 2021.

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New measures to accelerate examination of trademarks in Canada

office daytime

The Canadian Trademark landscape has changed significantly over the last few years with a modernized trademarks regime.  The challenges that have arisen since Canada’s 2019 accession to the Singapore Treaty, the Madrid Protocol, and the Nice Agreement, along with various input from stakeholders, have guided the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) in adopting new measures to accelerate the prosecution of trademark applications. With the time to the issuance of a first examination report reaching recently 24-30 months in the case of some national applications, these measures need to be carefully considered. Two new practice notices are intended to address delays in examination, namely:

  1. CIPO – PN: Measures to improve timeliness in examination
  2. CIPO – PN: Requests for expedited examination
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Are Recipes Protected by Copyright Law?

food on forks

As it currently stands, Canadian courts have not yet addressed the issue of copyright in recipes, but what can we learn from the leading caselaw on the subject from the United States? Although there are important differences between copyright law in Canada and the U.S., it seems likely that Canadian courts would at least consider the state of the law in the U.S. should the issue ever appear in front of them.

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NEW Canadian College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents (CPATA)

light bulb cloud

On June 28, 2021, the newly instituted College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents (“CPATA”) began operations as the professional regulator of patent and trademark agents. The organization is the fruit of more than a decade of work and is an important milestone under Canada’s Intellectual Property Strategy.

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