A Settlement Between Negotiating Parties Can Be Implied By Courts

The Federal Court recently dealt with settlement negotiations and the risk for a party to find itself bound by a settlement resolving a litigation informally and, perhaps to a certain degree, unexpectedly. In Maoz Betser-Zilevitch v. Nexen Inc et al, plaintiff, an engineer, sued for patent infringement. The patent relates to equipment intended to inject steam and extract heavy oil from oil sands. The parties engaged in settlement discussions for one year, reaching an agreement in principle "subject to formalization, review and execution by the parties of a formal settlement agreement." Subsequently, the parties were unable to agree on the terms of a formal agreement and Plaintiff took the position that there was no settlement. The Defendant moved to enforce the settlement in the Federal Court, asking the court to assist in "identifying the terms of the settlement".