E-TIPS

On November 3, 2020, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) issued a guidance document explaining how it will determine whether claimed subject-matter is patentable, particularly in respect of computer-implemented inventions, medical diagnostic methods and medical uses.

On November 12, 2020, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) released key recommendations for regulating artificial intelligence (AI). The recommendations are the result of a public consultation that occurred earlier this year.

On November 2, 2020, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (the Court) in Google LLC v. Sonos, Inc., No. 20-cv-03845-EMC, granted Sonos’ motion to dismiss an action brought by Google alleging patent infringement of its U.S. patent no. 8,583,489 (‘489 Patent) on the ground that the invention is patent-ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

On November 9, 2020, the Canadian Government announced the launch of the $1.75 billion Universal Broadband Fund (the Fund), an investment aimed towards connecting more Canadians to high-speed internet, growing businesses and creating jobs.

On October 29, 2020 the Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) published a news release finding that commercial real estate company Cadillac Fairview (Cadillac) contravened applicable privacy laws through the use of embedded cameras inside digital information kiosks across twelve Canadian shopping malls to collect images of customers and generate biometric information from the images without the customer's knowledge or consent.

On October 22, 2020, the Federal Court of Canada (the Court) issued its decision in Flatwork Technologies, LLC (Powerblanket) v Brierley, 2020 FC 997, a patent impeachment action brought under section 60(1) of the Patent Act. The Court granted summary judgment, invalidating Canadian Patent 2,383,341 (the ‘341 Patent), which describes an electric heating wrap for use on articulated hydraulic booms, on the basis of obviousness.

On October 27, 2020, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced two resolutions adopted by the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA, formerly the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners) concerning the development and use of facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

On October 23, 2020, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) published final Guidelines, which set out the PMPRB’s approach to the price review process and investigations.

On October 13, 2020, Verificient Technologies (Verificient), the company that developed the exam proctoring program Proctortrack announced that a security breach was detected. According to the announcement, a preliminary assessment indicated that an unknown person gained unauthorized access to an automated testing server.

Presentation by Gary Daniel of Deeth Williams Wall LLP and Madam Justice Fuhrer of the Federal Court of Canada exploring the philosophical conflicts between Indigenous culture and 21st-century intellectual property laws, their implications for the domestic and international protection of IP rights in the digital age and an overview of how laws in Canada and abroad are dealing with these issues. Watch the Video (Archive)

On September 30, 2020, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that it has reached an agreement with Notesolution Inc. (OneClass) regarding alleged violations of Canada’s Anti-spam Legislation (CASL).

On October 6, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published its report entitled Public Views on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Policy (the Report) addressing the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technology across the intellectual property (IP) landscape. The Report summarizes nearly 200 submissions received by the USPTO in response to two requests for comments soliciting public input on (i) patenting AI-based inventions; and (ii) other IP protections for AI technology, namely copyright, trademark, database protections, and trade secret law.

On October 13, 2020, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the OPC) announced it had launched investigations into recent cyber security incidents targeting Government of Canada organizations including, the Canada Revenue Agency (as reported previously by the E-TIPS® Newsletter here).

On October 8, 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (the Court) released its decision in Ezaki Glico Kabushiki Kaisha v Lotte International America Corp, No. 19-3010 (3d Cir. 2020), in which it upheld the decision of the District Court finding that the "Pocky" stick-shaped cookie design was functional and therefore not eligible for trade dress protection.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) published its 2019-2020 Annual Report to Parliament (the Annual Report) on the Privacy Act and Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. In addition to providing statistical information, descriptions of business and government advisory work, and summaries of investigations, the Annual Report also discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic is raising important new privacy issues.

On September 23, 2020, Canadian e-commerce company Shopify Inc. (Shopify) announced that, in accordance with its obligations under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), it had notified the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the OPC) about a security incident carried out by two "rogue" employees.

In July of 2017, the Federal Court of Canada granted the largest damages award in Canadian history for patent infringement on the basis of an accounting of profits in Dow Chemical Company v Nova Chemical Corporation, 2017 FC 637, as previously reported by the E-TIPS® Newsletter here.

On September 24, 2020, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the Commissioner) appeared before the Committee on Institutions of the National Assembly of Quebec to discuss Bill 64, An Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information (the Bill). The Bill was introduced on June 12, 2020, and proposes a number of provisions to protect personal information in the private and public sectors, as previously reported by the E-TIPS® Newsletter here.

On September 22, 2020, Evel Knievel’s son, Kelly Knievel, brought a federal infringement lawsuit against Disney and Pixar in the Nevada District Court, alleging that the filmmakers unlawfully based the Toy Story 4 character, Duke Caboom, on Evel Knievel.

On September 14, 2020, the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) held that Banksy’s trademark for the artwork ‘Flower Thrower’ (depicted at right) was filed in bad faith, and therefore is invalid.