Law360 Canada ( October 29, 2024, 4:21 PM EDT) -- Appeals by plaintiff and defendant from single decision of federal court that addressed patent infringement allegations and patent validity related to several patents. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendant infringed and were infringing six Canadian patents. The defendant denied infringement and alleged that all the patents in suit were invalid on various grounds. The patents in issue concerned diaper pails and cassettes to be placed therein. The cassettes in issue were annular in shape and contained flexible plastic tubing or film that was dispensed through the central opening of the annulus to receive used diapers. Following 35 trial days, the federal court issued its decision that considered the various infringement allegations related to several generations of the defendant’s products, including various allegations of invalidity such as anticipation, obviousness, overbreadth, insufficiency, ambiguity and inutility. It concluded that some of the respondent’s products infringed some of the patent claims in issue, and that most of the claims in issue were valid. Importantly, the federal court found that the respondent’s liability for infringement extended to its US-based parent company. In the first appeal, the defendant argued that the federal court erred in several respects relating to its conclusions on anticipation, obviousness and respondent’s liability for infringement. In the second appeal, the plaintiff argued that the federal court erred in some of its conclusions of non-infringement concerning the defendant’s Generation 4 product....