Top ten tips for dealing with business method patents in Canada

This article is republished with the permission of the Association of Corporate Counsel 2011. All rights reserved.

Will Canada Become a Haven for Non-Practicing Entities to Litigate Their Claims?

This list of top ten issues will canvass the law of business method patents in Canada and will consider the impact of the recent Amazon case on your business.

1.         Understand that Canada is open to business (method patents).

With its thorough and, at times, bracing decision in Amazon, the Federal Court of Canada affirmed that business methods are patentable subject matter in Canada. In its decision, the Court overturned the Patent Appeal Board’s decision to refuse the Amazon application and virtually chastised the Board for entering “into policy-making which stands to fundamentally affect the Canadian patent regime.” The Court noted that “the Patent Act is not static; it must be applied in ways that recognize changes in technology such as the move from the industrial age to the electronic one of today.”

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