Below is our Month in Review for August, highlighting posts on our snIP/ITs blog. You can follow the links to any of these specific posts, or you can visit the blog at www.canadiantechlawblog.com.

SAGD Patents and Applications in Canada
By Timothy Ellam, Steven Tanner and Allyson Hopkins on August 26th, 2014

In 1979, Dr. Robert Butler and his research team filed a Canadian patent application for the oil recovery technology known as Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). Over thirty years later, SAGD technology has become a formative oil-recovery process, with over two hundred patent applications filed in Canada relating to SAGD technology. SAGD operations have …

B.C. Supreme Court Breathes Life Into New Breed of Potential Pharma-Related Class Action Whereby Innovator Profits Are At Risk
By David Tait, Steven Tanner and Brandon Kain on August 22nd, 2014

In Canada, innovator drug companies can protect their market exclusivity from generic copycats by asserting patents against the generic manufacturer in litigation under the PM(NOC) Regulations. Until now, the consequences of losing PM(NOC) litigation was the potential payment of damages to the generic whose market access was delayed by the litigation. These so-called “section 8 …

Third Party’s Right to Use Official Mark in a Domain Name Upheld: BC Court of Appeal Rejects ICBC’s Claim of Trade-mark Infringement
By Lisa Martz on August 4th, 2014

On July 22, 2014, the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed the claim of B.C.’s provincial auto insurer, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, that a personal injury lawyer’s registration and use …

The Enforcement Begins: Highlights of the CRTC FAQ Updates on CASL
By Roland Hung on August 1st, 2014

CASL came into effect on July 1, 2014, including the provisions for sending commercial electronic messages (section 6) and installing computer programs (section 8). Since July 1, 2014, it is reported that the CRTC has received more than 1,000 complaints. Hence, awareness of this new law is spreading quickly, and as such so …

Intrusion Upon Seclusion Part 2: Implications for Businesses Across Canada
By Roland Hung on August 1st, 2014

Recently, my colleagues Sean Griffin and Ann-Elisabeth Simard considered the Evans v Bank of Nova Scotia decision wherein the Ontario Supreme Court certified a class action proceeding for allegations concerning a breach of privacy rights through the tort of intrusion upon seclusion first set out in Jones v Tsige. You can …

Beware Hubris – Janssen’s infringement of AbbVie’s patent gets enjoined by the Federal Court
By Fiona Legere, David Tait and Andrew Reddon on August 1st, 2014

Justice Roger T. Hughes of the Federal Court of Canada granted AbbVie the first-ever limited injunction against a branded pharmaceutical company infringing a branded competitor’s patent. The injunction followed Justice Hughes’ earlier finding that AbbVie’s patent was valid and infringed by Janssen through the promoting, offering for sale, and selling in Canada of Janssen’s biologic …