Intellectual Property
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February 12, 2025
Alberta Appeal Court rules six-year federal limitation period applies to patent infringement claims
On Jan. 28, 2025, the Alberta Court of Appeal released a decision in the case of JL Energy Transportation Inc. v. Alliance Pipeline Limited Partnership, [2025] A.J. No. 84, confirming that the previously enforced two-year limitation period for patent infringement claims no longer applies. In its ruling, the rejected the two-year window in favour of a six-year limitation, overturning the summary dismissal of the plaintiff’s lawsuit and allowing the case to proceed to trial.
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February 11, 2025
Canada signs on to legally binding European convention governing AI development
Canada has joined the European Union and 11 other countries in signing the first legally binding international agreement aimed at ensuring that artificial intelligence (AI) systems respect human rights, democratic values and the rule of law throughout their life cycle.
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February 11, 2025
Landmark U.S. copyright decision and its implications for AI and canadian copyright law
The legal profession has entered a new frontier in the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law. On Feb. 11, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware issued a landmark decision in Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH v Ross Intelligence Inc, No 1:20-cv-613-SB, ruling in favour of Thomson Reuters in the first major fair use copyright case involving AI. The decision, which found that ROSS Intelligence unlawfully used Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw headnotes to train its legal AI research tool, raises profound questions about the future of AI training, data access, and copyright law.
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February 10, 2025
C.J. Wagner says top court ‘exploring’ provision of mediation in cases where leave to appeal denied
Lawyers say they want to know specifics about the out-of-the-blue disclosure from Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner that he has asked his staff to “explore the possibility” of the top court providing “mediation” for litigants in cases where the apex court denies leave to appeal, and his suggestion that family law cases might lend themselves to a potential mediation initiative.
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February 10, 2025
Increasing regulations depressed economic and job growth, says StatCan study
In a new study on the potential impact of regulations on the economy, Statistics Canada has found that an increase in regulatory provisions from 2006 to 2021 was associated with a 1.7 percentage point reduction in gross domestic product growth and a 1.3 percentage point reduction in employment growth.
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February 07, 2025
New associate counsel at Harper Grey
Aren Altman has joined Harper Grey as associate counsel in the business law group.
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February 06, 2025
Federal government unveils new cyber security strategy and list of protected technologies
The federal government has identified 11 key areas of technology where it says Canadian intellectual property should be closely guarded to protect national security.
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February 05, 2025
Virani extols more diverse bench; says he’s working to get new wrongful conviction review body going
In contrast to the new U.S administration’s dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies targeting hiring biases against members of racialized and other underrepresented groups, the Trudeau government is doubling down on its commitment to diversity, with Justice Minister Arif Virani proudly extolling the federal Liberals’ record of appointing many “brilliant” women and racialized jurists to the federal trial and appellate benches.
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February 05, 2025
Leo Pharma agrees to pay $437K to settle lawsuit over skin cancer risk from Picato
Toronto-based Leo Pharma has agreed to pay $437,678 to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that its actinic keratosis treatment, Picato, increased patients’ risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.
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February 03, 2025
Chief Justice Wagner says federal judicial appointments on ‘right path’ as vacancies hit low of 30
The minority Liberal federal government has turned around the “untenable” situation Canada’s top judge warned about two years ago that was harming Canadians, due to a persistently-high number of federal judicial vacancies caused by Ottawa’s years-long chronic delays in appointing judges.