Federal Court Of Canada Launches Specialized Intellectual Property Chambers Pilot Project

With the creation of specialized Chambers in the Federal Court, parties can be confident that judges assigned to their intellectual property matters in Canada will have intellectual property expertise.

New specialized Federal Court Chambers

On March 2, 2023, the Federal Court issued a Notice to the Parties and the Profession announcing that the Federal Court has launched a pilot project creating three specialized Chambers of the Court in the following practice areas:

• Intellectual Property and Competition
• Maritime and Admiralty
• Class Actions

Intellectual property (IP) matters will be assigned to members of the IP and Competition Chambers. According to the notice, for some years, the Chief Justice has endeavoured to assign IP and competition matters to members of the Court who have expertise in those areas. Now parties can confidently expect that the judges assigned to their matters will have expertise in the relevant issues.