Canadian patent law

Canadian patent law is the legal system regulating the granting of patents for inventions within Canada, and the enforcement of these rights in Canada.

A patent is a government grant that gives the inventor and his or her heirs, executors and assigns, the exclusive right within Canada, during the term of the patent, to make, use and/or sell the invention claimed in the patent, subject to adjudication.

The granting of Canadian patents is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Canadian federal government and is governed by the federal Patent Act, the Patent Rules, and various international treaties and the regulations thereunder. The enforcement of Canadian patents is the responsibility of the Canadian Federal Court, or the Courts of the Canadian provinces.

For patent applications filed prior to October 1, 1989, the patent expires 17 years after the patent issues. For patent applications filed on or after October 1, 1989, the patent expires 20 years after the patent application was filed.

To be considered patentable, an invention must pass three criteria: novelty, non-obviousness and utility.

To be patentable, an invention must be novel. That is, the invention must not have been described or claimed in a previously filed third party Canadian patent application, and must not have been previously publicly disclosed by a third party, anywhere in the world. The test for novelty is whether or not a single, publicly disclosed example of prior art "contained all of the information which, for practical purposes, is needed to produce the claimed invention without the exercise of any inventive skill". If a third party previously filed a Canadian patent application disclosing the invention, or if a third party document or device previously publicly disclosed the invention anywhere in the world, then a subsequently applied-for Canadian patent application for that invention is lacking in novelty and is invalid. A lack of novelty is often referred to as "anticipation". For example, if a piece of prior art has each of the elements of a claimed invention, the piece of prior art is said to "anticipate" the claimed invention, or alternatively, the claimed invention is said to have been "anticipated by" the piece of prior art.

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