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Unlocking Efficiency: Fintech Patent Success in Canada

June 18, 2024

In Canadian patent law, the determination of the “actual invention” is a relevant and necessary question in assessing patentable subject matter.  Generally, a computer is only considered part of the actual invention if running an algorithm on the computer improves the computer's efficiency (for example,…

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2021 Patent Appeal Board Statistics

March 22, 2022

Patent applicants with computer-implemented inventions may find some reassurance in the 2021 Canadian Patent Appeal Board (“PAB”) statistics.  Despite a general sense that the PAB is hostile to these types of inventions, the statistics reveal that computer-related subject matter rejections are over-turned…

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New Patent Appeal Board decisions shine light on CIPO’s application of Choueifaty to patentable subject matter rejections

May 19, 2021

The Canadian Patent Appeal Board (PAB) has now started releasing Commissioner’s Decisions rendered since the Federal Court’s decision in Choueifaty v. Canada (AG), 2020 FC 837, and since the Office issued…

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Benefits of a Canadian Patent Filing for High-Tech Innovators

January 16, 2018

Treatment of computer-implemented inventions by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has remained consistent for many years.  CIPO’s predictable treatment of computer-implemented inventions has likely contributed to the uptick in computer-implemented invention patent filings since 2011. …

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Patenting Artificial Intelligence

January 05, 2018

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications are the focus of many emerging companies and many new products across a diverse number of fields. As such, it’s natural to consider whether patent protection may be available for various AI innovations. First, as with any other kind of invention,…

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Further Discussion of Subject Matter Eligibility by Patent Appeal Board

September 07, 2017

On the heels of its decisions relating to patentability of graphical user interfaces (previously discussed here) from late last year, the Canadian Patent Appeal Board (PAB) has provided further insight on the issue…

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What about Schlumberger?

July 25, 2017

For decades, Schlumberger Canada Ltd v Canada (Commissioner of Patents), [1981] 56 CPR (2d) 204 (FCA), was the only Canadian decision on computer-implemented inventions. In that case, the court upheld the Commissioner’s rejection of an invention implemented by way of software. The Federal…

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Do FinTech Patents Have a Future?

February 22, 2017

Every day brings a new flurry of articles about FinTech (“financial technology”) startups and their potential to be disruptive forces. Traditional banking and financial industry players are said to be at great risk. However, many of them have seen this coming and are preparing to defend their turf.…

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Treatment of GUI Patent Claims in Canada

February 07, 2017

Canadian patent examiners sometimes object to graphical user interface claims on the basis that they are unpatentable since they have “purely intellectual or aesthetic significance.”  There is an old line of decisions that hold that something having solely intellectual or aesthetic significance is…

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2014: The US Supreme Court wrestles with patents

January 14, 2014

Over the past few years, IP has been in the spotlight south of the border.  It seems that not a day goes by without a patent, trade-mark or copyright story in the popular press (e.g. see smartphone wars).  Changes in the law have also been coming at a fast pace.  Witness the US implementation…

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Some 2013 hints of where we’re headed on computer-implemented inventions in Canada

November 28, 2013

2013 saw the release of four Commissioner’s Decisions (Patent Appeal Board cases) that offer a glimpse of how the Amazon.com, Inc. v. Canada decision of the Federal Court of Appeal is being applied by the Canadian patent office.  The decisions largely turn upon claim construction. If the…

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Update: en banc re-hearing for CLS Bank v. Alice

October 16, 2012

In a previous post, here, we noted the sharp division in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the issue of patent-eligible subject matter…

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Continued division over “abstract ideas” test in the CAFC: CLS Bank v. Alice Corp.

July 10, 2012

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is again divided on the test for patent-eligible subject matter, with the majority and minority exchanging biting comments.  The CAFC decision in CLS…

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A fuzzy line being drawn by the CAFC to circumscribe “abstract ideas”

January 26, 2012

A trio of recent Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) cases, including last week’s decision in DealerTrack v. Huber, give some insight into what the Court considers a patentable…

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accelerated examination, accounting of profits, allowance, anticipation, artificial intelligence, assignments, blockchain, budget, confusion, copyright, costs, duty of disclosure, early disclosure, examination, filing strategies, fintech, graphical user interfaces, industrial design, inventorship, open source, opposition, patent appeal board, patent search, patentable subject matter, patents, PCT, prior use rights, promises of the patent, provisional patents, software patents, sufficient disclosure, Technological Protection Measures, TPM, trade secrets, trademarks


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