Canadian Patent Office is called |
CIPO's activities include Canadian patents to cover new inventions or any useful and new improvements of an existing invention. CIPO also deals with the trademarks of words, symbols or designs - or a combination of them - used to diffirentiate wares and services from others in business. Copyrights provide for protection for artistic, dramatic, musical or literary works. And that includes computer programs. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) manages another type of intellectual property. |
A Canadian patent is a Canadian government grant that gives the inventor and his or her heirs, executors and assigns, the exclusive right within Canada, during the term of the patent, to make, use and/or sell the invention claimed in the patent, subject to adjudication.
The granting of patents in Canada is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the CA federal government and is governed by the Canadian federal Patent Act, the Patent Rules, and various international treaties and the regulations thereunder. The enforcement of patents in Canada is the responsibility of the Canadian Federal Court, or the Courts of the Canadian provinces.
For an invention to be considered patentable in Canada, it must pass three criteria: novelty, non-obviousness and utility.
Novelty
To be patentable in Canada, an invention must be novel. That is, the invention must not have been described or claimed in a previously filed Canadian patent application, and must not have been previously publicly disclosed by a third party, anywhere in the world. The test for novelty is whether or not a single, publicly disclosed example of prior art that "contained all of the information which, for practical purposes, is needed to produce the claimed invention without the exercise of any inventive skill". If a third party previously filed a Canadian patent application disclosing the invention, or if a third party document or device previously publicly disclosed the invention anywhere in the world, then a subsequently applied-for Canadian patent application for that invention is lacking in novelty and is invalid. A lack of novelty is often referred to as "anticipation". For example, if a piece of prior art has each of the elements of a claimed invention, the piece of prior art is said to "anticipate" the claimed invention, or alternatively, the claimed invention is said to have been "anticipated by" the piece of prior art.
Non-obviousness
The test for non-obviousness is whether a "unimaginative skilled technician, in light of his general knowledge and the literature and information on the subject available to him on (the date that the application is filed in Canada), would have been led directly and without difficulty to the invention."
Utility
For a Canadian product to have utility it must perform some useful function. The requirement for utility originates from the definition of invention as a "new and useful art" The requirement is generally easy to meet, however, it does limit the scope of protection by excluding methods that would not be useful.
It is advisable to seek legal or other help from Canadian patent experts. Such as Patent Attorneys. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office - Canadian Patent Office - maintains and publishes a list of Canadian Patent Agents who are registered with the Canadian Patent Office and who prepare and file patent applications in Canada on behalf of inventors.
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), also known as the Canadian Patent Office a Special Operating Agency (SOA) associated with Industry Canada, is responsible for the administration and processing of the greater part of intellectual property in Canada.
Canadian Patent Searches can be performed at the CIPO website.
http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/introduction.html
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Canadian Patent Office | Canadian Patent Search
Canadian Patent Agents | Canadian Patents