Ontario, CA. The Federal Court of Canada has recently issued a decision in favour of software and business method patenting. The Federal Court overruled an earlier decision by the Commissioner of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office who had rejected a patent application from Amazon.com, Inc. for their one-click purchasing method. The Federal Court stated that there is no categorical exclusion of business method inventions, and, software-implemented inventions that achieve “commercially applicable results” are patentable.
The Federal Court found that the Commissioner had erroneously applied foreign jurisprudence which had no basis under Canadian Law. The Commissioner was found to have injudiciously applied a new test for patentability which had no basis, had used an overly restrictive interpretation of the term ‘art’ (any “new and useful art” is patentable under Canadian Law), and, incorrectly stated that an invention must be scientific or technological for it to be patentable. The Court rejected the Commissioner's reasoning for rejecting the patent application and sent the patent application back to the Canadian Patent Office for re-examination. In delivering the decision, the Court indicated that the criteria for assessing patentability should be set broadly to account for inventions in today's technologically advanced era.
The decision by the Federal Court has increased the possibility for business method inventions and software-implemented inventions to be protected in Canada. In light of recent decisions in both Europe and the United States of America (G1/08 at the EPO, and, Bilski in front of the Supreme Court), this decision in Canada is most welcome and it is hoped that the decision will pave the way for a wider acceptance of business method patents and software-implemented patents in other jurisdictions.
October 19, 2010
Cruickshank & Co.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
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