Trends, analysis and insights in IP Law
The Federal Court recently released its decision in Bell Media Inc v Macciacchera (Smoothstreams.tv), 2022 FC 1139, in which the court stressed the importance of compliance with Interim Orders and indicated that the Plaintiffs’ case has strong merits going forward.
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UPDATE: Further to the below article, the Patent Rules have now been published in Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 156, Number 13. This issue of the Canada Gazette may be accessed here in HTML format, or here in PDF format.
As covered in the blog previously, Canada’s patent regime has been undergoing significant changes. Our earlier posts about these changes and what steps patentees can take to mitigate the impacts of these changes can be found here and here. The amendments are meant to reduce prosecution time and streamline the examination process.
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UPDATE: On April 14, 2022, the Minister of Health announced that the federal government will not proceed with amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations introducing new pharmacoeconomic factors and requiring that price and revenue information be reported net of all adjustments. The federal government will proceed with amendments establishing a new basket of comparator countries, with a coming-into-force date of July 1, 2022. For more information, see our Life Sciences Bulletin on the Minister’s announcement.
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This article provides an update on each of these cases and highlights the growing body of jurisprudence questioning the PMPRB’s price control reasoning.
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One does not need to be a legal scholar to know that confidential communications between lawyers and their clients for the purpose of seeking and giving legal advice are generally privileged. The so-called “solicitor-client” privilege is a cornerstone of law and allows clients and their lawyers to freely discuss legal issues without unintended disclosures. Thus, apart from certain exceptions, Canadian courts will not compel production of privileged communications such as emails, letters and reports exchanged between clients and their lawyers for the purpose of legal advice.
For years, this special treatment did not attach to communications between clients and their patent agents. This was problematic because patent agents often provide equally strategic and sensitive advice and opinions in the specific area of patents. As a result, it was common practice to channel such communications through lawyers to shroud these under solicitor-client privilege.
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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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