Prompt steps may be needed to preserve a patent application
during an inventorship or ownership dispute
What happens when your client discovers that a patent
application for his or her invention was filed by an erstwhile
business partner without identifying your client as an inventor or
applicant? The result could be an irrevocable loss of rights if
your client does not quickly act to seize control of the
application, as seen in the recent Federal Court decision of
Cloutier c. Thibault, 2014 CF 1135—but figuring out
how to accomplish this feat is another matter.
In a Canadian patent application, only the applicants currently
recognized by the Commissioner of Patents are able to direct the
course of the application: whether it should be amended, maintained
in good standing, or allowed to go abandoned to thereby forfeit any
future patent rights. While ownership and applicantship can change
during the life of the application, the right to be recognized as
an applicant
