Excess Claims Fees To Be Introduced Into Canada's Patent Regime

The Canadian patent regime has always been unique and flexible. However, many of these unique aspects are disappearing in order to bring Canada's patent regime into procedural harmony with the practice in other jurisdictions.

One of the advantages under the current Canadian patent regime is that Applicants may include as many claims (i.e. dependent or independent) as desired without having to pay excess claims fees. This is unlike the practice in other jurisdictions, such as the United States and Europe, where excess claims fees are the norm.

Nevertheless, one of the upcoming changes to the Canadian patent regime is the introduction of excess claims fees. This change is being implemented in order to meet the obligations in Article 20.44¹ of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement ("CUSMA") which states, in part, that patent applications should be processed "in an efficient and timely manner, with a view to avoiding unreasonable or unnecessary delays."