Competition Bureau Invites Feedback on Draft Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines

On November 1, 2018, the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) published a draft version of its revised Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines (IPEGs). Interested parties are invited to submit comments on the revised guidelines until December 31, 2018.

IPEGs provide guidance on the Bureau’s approach to conducting investigations of alleged anti-competitive activities involving intellectual property.  They also outline the circumstances under which the Bureau considers intervention appropriate to limit the terms and conditions under which the owners of intellectual property rights may transfer or license such rights. The IPEGs additionally provide a series of hypothetical scenarios outlining the Bureau’s approach to conduct such as price fixing, licensing, product switching, settling pharmaceutical patent litigation proceedings, asserting patents, and actions related to standard essential patents.

The proposed updates to the IPEGs are relatively minor, and reflect recent jurisprudence and recent changes to Canada’s pharmaceutical patent linkage regulations (which replaced dual litigation with full actions resulting in final determinations of patent validity and infringement, previously reported by E-TIPS® here). The Bureau has indicated that, despite the proposed updates, it will not substantially change its approach to enforcing the Competition Act in matters involving intellectual property. 

Summary By: Vanessa Komarnicki