It's Not Over Yet - Patent Lapse Due To Clerical Error May Yet Be Saved

On July 27, 2012, the Federal Court of Canada - for the second time - quashed a decision of the Commissioner of Patents to refuse to correct a clerical error relating to Repligen Corporation's Canadian Patent # 1,341,486.

In 2008, Repligen's patent lapsed due to the inadvertent non-payment of its maintenance fees. Although the fees were sent to the Patent Office under Repligen's name, they were sent with the wrong patent number. When Repligen's new patent agents caught the mistake, they requested a correction under section 8 of the Patent Act. Section 8 gives the Commissioner the discretion to correct clerical errors in "any instrument of record in the Patent Office". Although the Commissioner acknowledged that the error was clerical in nature, she refused to correct it. In 2010, Repligen succeeded in an application for judicial review of the Commissioner's decision but their request for correction was again refused upon redetermination by the Patent Office.