-
Privilege in IP Litigation
Section 16.1(1) of the Patent Act was last amended in 2016 to extend privilege to communications made for the purpose of seeking or giving advice with respect to any matter relating to the proection of an invention. In Janssen Inc and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp v. Sandoz Canaa Inc., 2021 FC 1265, the Federal Court was asked to interpreted the new section 16.1(1) in order to assess the scope of privilege to be applied to communications with a patent agent. The Federal Court found that the new section excludes a “non-infringement opinion for a product”, finding that communications relating to the protection of an invention do not extend to an…
-
EPO Refuses To Name AI as Inventor On Patent Applications
(Press Release) Last week, the Legal Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office announced its decision to dismiss the appeal in cases J 8/20 and J 9/20. The Legal Board of Appeal confirmed the decisions of the Receiving Section of the European Patent Office to refuse the applications EP 18 275 163 and EP 18 275 174, in which an artificial intelligence system called DABUS was designated as inventor in the application forms. The Legal Board of Appeal also refused the auxiliary request according to which no person had been identified as inventor but merely a natural person was indicated to have “the right to the European Patent by virtue of being the owner and creator of”…
