Canadian patents have recently received a boost from the federal
government and courts. Our top court recently removed the promise
doctrine from patent utility law as a basis to challenge patents.
New laws are going to beef up linkage regulations and create patent
term extensions for drugs. Patent and design registrations are also
being streamlined.
Promise doctrine eliminated as a ground of patent
invalidity
The "promise doctrine" in the Canadian patent law of
utility received a lot of press in the pharma industry. As the
doctrine caught hold the past decade or so, Canadian utility became
out of line with the law in the US and UK, where the utility
standard is easily met. Under the promise doctrine, if any promises
of utility in the patent specification were not met, then
potentially the entire patent could be held invalid. This
was an alarming proposition considering that brand name drug
companies often make bold predictions that compounds will have a
wide range
