Global Intellectual Strategies

Come Meet GIS at the LES Annual Meeting, October 16-19 in San Diego

noreply@blogger.com (Blogger) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:51:00 +0000

GIS invites you to attend their workshop on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 from 3:45pm - 5:00pm

The topic will be THE IMPACT OF RECENT CHANGES IN PATENT LAW: SUCCESSFUL SOLUTIONS.

Recent case law is having a tremendous impact on licensing strategies. In this workshop we investigate problems that arise from recent changes in patent law and how they affect patent licensing. Particularly, the workshop focuses on how the licensing industry is adapting and finding new solutions for effective licensing strategies. Issues of interest such as obviousness (KSR), patent exhaustion, DJs (Declaratory Judgments), patent reform, direct v. indirect infringement, and calculations of damages, for example, which have impacted the licensing industry are addressed. Specifically, a general approach to dealing with recent changes in patent law is addressed and the workshop focuses in on problems specific to the High Tech industry.

Charles Neuenschwander, Principal, IPLC
Marc Pepin, Manager, Patent Intelligence & R&D, GLOBAL INTELLECTUAL STRATEGIES
Nainesh Shah, Director, Worldwide Licensing, STMICROELECTRONICS
Matthew Vella, Senior Vice President, ACACIA RESEARCH GROUP LLC

We look forward to seeing you there! http://www.lesusacanada.org

Maximizing The Value of Your Portfolio : Patent Acquistion

noreply@blogger.com (Blogger) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:15:00 +0000

Acquiring patents is a strategy many companies use to;

Supplement an existing portfolio for wider product coverage,
Acquire IP protection when launching a new line of business or,
Increase portfolio strength in licensing negotiations.

However, patent purchase can be a risky investment as the portfolios can be expensive and the value of the patent is not always immediately evident. GIS can help you to identify key patents and provide you with the information you require to make an informed decision to purchase or not.

Auction transactions: Let GIS review both the patents and the market prior to the auction, allowing for an informed decision on the value of the portfolio before the bidding starts.

Private sale transactions: Private sale portfolios vary in size, and have a limited timeline from review to bid. Many IP professionals have limited time to evaluate a large number of patents in a very short time frame. GIS experts will triage and review the portfolio and provide a manageable amount of information, based on customer requirements, to help with the decision making process before it becomes a missed opportunity.

Castles built on sand - Patent Valuation

noreply@blogger.com (David@GIS) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:45:00 +0000

My presentation at LESI in London last month was asking the question, how can you put a value on a patent if you don't know who is infringing it? And when I say who, I mean; what company, what products, and what is the revenue of that product in the patent's jurisdiction.
A patent is a negative right, that is the right to exclude. If no one is using, or no one wants to use your invention, you patent if of little value.

Interestingly enough, there were two main answers to my question:

Most valuation companies come up with a value without looking into who potential infringers are. These valuations are Castles build on Sand in my opinion - values with no firm support.
One innovative company structures financial deals where a companies IP is obtained by a friendly 3rd party for a price. This price is used as the basis of establishing a value based on the market value approach.

How about you? Is your valuation built on sand?

I'm back from LESI in London

noreply@blogger.com (David@GIS) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:19:00 +0000

I'm back from the LESI (Licensing Executive Society - International) annual meeting in London, UK where I presented with Jeoren Langendam of ML-BD on June 6th.
There were approximately 650 attendees; a mix of legal, technology transfer, and licensing professionals.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules on the "Clear and Convincing Evidence" Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Marc) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:02:00 +0000

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court in the the case of Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd ruled that an accused infringer must prove its invalidity defence by clear and convincing evidence. The following questions where adrressed:

(1) whether "a defendant in an infringement action need only persuade the jury of an invalidity defense by a preponderance of the evidence"; and,

(2) whether "a preponderance standard must apply at least when an invalidity defense rests on evidence that was never considered by the Patent Office in the examination process."

The answer to both of these questions is no.

For further details on this ruling see the link below.

http://www.bracewellgiuliani.com/index.cfm/fa/news.advisory/item/2159223f-3eb5-4677-b13d-e3125db23f6d/22Supreme_Court_Unanimously_Maintains_High_Hurdle_for_Invalidity_Defense.cfm

Prior Art & Validity Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Blogger) — Fri, 20 May 2011 02:43:00 +0000

When involved in patent litigation or licensing, there will likely come a time when you are accused of patent infringement. When this happens, there are three common options open to you:

Rebut the claims of infringement;
File a counter claim of infringement;
Invalidate the asserted patent claims.

If you determine that your product does not infringe the patent then option 1) is the first path to consider. Option 2) can be taken if your own patent portfolio covers the accuser’s products and can be the basis of a cross-licensing agreement. However, given the prevalence of non-practicing patent entities (sometimes referred to as “patent trolls”) or weaknesses in your own patent portfolio, you may be left with only option 3) as a practical course of action.

Though a granted patent is assumed to be valid, the validity is most often attacked on the grounds of “anticipation”, or “obviousness” based on prior art.

GIS’s patent and technical experts pride themselves on their ability to find relevant prior art to support an argument that a patent is invalid based on either anticipation or obviousness.

Although the search process is customized to fit each situation, in general, GIS experts follow the following process. Starting with a small number of carefully researched documents, we choose the most likely reference to follow. This in turn uncovers new documents, which in turn lead us to further documents. The end result is one or several relevant prior art documents as well as the search path taken. You receive a small, manageable number of documents to evaluate, the process is quick and efficient, and having the search path documented, it is easy to continue the search at a later date.

Often, before you come to GIS for prior art searches, you will have done some searching on your own. To take this into account, we will keep you up to date on our progress in order that we may combine our knowledge with yours to ensure that the same searching is not repeated unnecessarily. It also gives you the option of shortening or extending the search time based on the results discovered to gain the maximum benefit from your limited budget.

GIS will search both public patent and technical databases as well as our own, internal Technical Library which includes over 1,800 technical references and data books dating back to 1966.

External technical experts affiliated with GIS may also be consulted, if required.

Clients are typically presented with a short list of the most relevant art, along with explanations of the relevance. A detailed search history will also be delivered which will aid in any future searches.

Prior art searches are also commonly used when conducting due diligence on a patent for sale or purchase, or when performing a patent valuation.

Reverse Engineering

noreply@blogger.com (Blogger) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:57:00 +0000

Successful patent licensing and litigation relies upon the ability to conclusively show evidence of infringement. One of the best methods of building a definitive case is to obtain evidence with the use of reverse engineering techniques.

Finding evidence of patent infringement based on targeted reverse engineering is one of GIS’s main strengths. What sets GIS apart from the competition is our formal patent background coupled with our extensive industry design experience allowing us to analyze patent claims in depth to identify what reverse engineering support is needed to demonstrate infringement.

Visit our website for more details: http://www.gistrategies.com

IP Licensing Client Testimonial

noreply@blogger.com (Blogger) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:06:00 +0000

"As intellectual property plays an increasing role in driving profitability for companies today, GIS’ knowledge of the IP Licensing industry has enabled us to start commercializing the value of our intellectual property. GIS is a wise investment for any technology start-up, and the people are great to work with. We continue to work with them on the various stages of our IP strategy."

Rob MacKenzie
VP-Business Innovation
Techlink Entertainment

Why GIS?

noreply@blogger.com (Blogger) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:41:00 +0000

GIS has extensive patent expertise. Our patent professionals include registered patent agents and other IP professionals. We are devoted to keeping up to date on the issues of the day in patent law and actively participate in professional organizations throughout the industry.

GIS has great depth of technical experience in patent directed reverse engineering. Our strength is our people and their depth of experience. Many of our team members have over 20 years of experience in their technical fields, including reverse engineering.

GIS has litigation proof policies and procedures. Several of GIS’s IP professionals have appeared as witnesses at trial and before the United States International Trade Commission (US ITC). Our corporate policies and procedures are designed to stand up to the scrutiny of litigation, from discovery actions to demonstrating a clear chain of custody.

US Senate Votes on Patent Reform

noreply@blogger.com (Marc) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:13:00 +0000

On Monday, the US Senate passed the America Invents Act (s. 23). The focus will now shift to the the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives.

The new measures include, among other measures, a transition from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system. Furthermore, the damages limitations may have been removed from the bill prior to passage. Further details on damages limitations will be provided in due course.
www.gistrategies.com

For further details see the links below.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2011/03/patent-reform-passed-in-senate-house-likely-to-introduce-bill-this-month.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2011/03/patent-reform-in-the-senate.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29

http://www.law360.com/ip/articles/230146?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ip

Global Intellectual Strategies® appoints Marek R. Wernik as President and CEO

noreply@blogger.com (Global Intellectual Strategies) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:36:00 +0000

Ottawa, Ontario – February 14, 2011 – Global Intellectual Strategies, Inc., today announce the appointment of Marek Wernik as the company's new president and chief executive officer. Mr. Wernik takes over the day-to-day operations and business strategy responsibilities from Pierrette Breton, founder of Global Intellectual Strategies (GIS). Pierrette Breton will transition out of the day-to-day role in the company to work as an expert consultant providing technical analysis of patents.

“We are extremely pleased to have an executive of Marek’s caliber joining our management team”, said company founder, Pierrette Breton. “His knowledge of intellectual property licensing, coupled with his broad technology background make him the ideal executive to continue to strengthen GIS’ position as a world class leader in providing expert patent and technical analysis in support of patent licensing and litigation.

Before joining GIS, Mr. Wernik held the position of Director, Intellectual Property Strategy at Alcatel-Lucent. In this role, he was responsible for establishing priorities for building and maintaining the IP assets resulting from technology innovation across Alcatel-Lucent Bell Laboratories advanced research and the global R&D activities. Prior to this position, he was the Assistant Vice President of Technology Strategy of Alcatel’s Carrier Network Divisions and the Director of Technology Licensing at Alcatel’s CTO office. Prior Alcatel, Mr. Wernik occupied various management positions at Nortel.

Mr. Wernik received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Warsaw Technical University, Poland, in 1973 and 1978, respectively and he is alumni of the Harvard Business School Program for Global Leadership. He is a member of the Licensing Executives Society.

“I am very pleased to accept the position of President and Chief Executive Officer. The strength of GIS today is testament to the talent of the entire team. I look forward to working with the GIS team to both expand upon past successes and develop new capabilities and services to reach a broad range of clients throughout the world,” said Marek Wernik.

www.gistrategies.com

Microsoft v. i4i: Amicus Briefs Filed

noreply@blogger.com (Marc) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:35:00 +0000

In Microsoft v. i4i, Miscrosoft is challenging the Federal Circuit's rule that when considering evidence of invalidity clear and convincing evidence is necessary to invalidate an issued patent, and argues that a preponderance of evidence should be sufficient.

Microsoft has filed an opening Brief and twenty-five additional Briefs have been filed by friends-of-the-court (FOTC). Twenty Briefs support Microsoft's position.

For further details of this case and information on the Briefs filed, see the link below.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2011/02/microsoft-v-i4idocket-no-10290-supreme-court-2011-briefing-has-begun-in-earnest-microsoft-recently-filed-its-opening-br.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29

CONTACT GIS or visit our website at www.gistrategies.com

Patent Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Global Intellectual Strategies) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:32:00 +0000

Typically only a small portion of any portfolio will actually have potential for monetization. Identifying these patents can be a very daunting task. However, once the portfolio is characterized and understood, the portfolio becomes much more manageable and monetization becomes possible.

GIS helps clients to mine and understand their portfolio to aid in their portfolio management activities. Common uses of patent reviews are;

1. Determining the applicability of the patent to industry,
2. Determining the market value of the patent for divestiture or acquisition.

GIS’ patent reviews take into account many considerations including;

* The potential commercial use of the invention,
* The ability to show evidence of use with reverse engineering techniques,
* Identifying strengths and limitations of the claims, and
* Identifying possible related art or invalidity issues.
* Although every case is different, depending on the client’s goals and budget, our patent reviews typically take on a combination of one or more of three different forms:
Quick Reviews are typically used during Patent Mining to triage a large portfolio to identify the most promising patents.
A Preliminary Review is typically performed in relation to due diligence for acquisition or with a specific licensing activity in mind.
A Detailed Review provides clients, who want a more in depth look at their patents, information which characterizes the patent(s).
Read more here Patent Reviews.

Prior Art Searches

noreply@blogger.com (Global Intellectual Strategies) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:55:00 +0000

Prior Art Searches at GIS

One of GIS’ specialties is finding prior art. In fact, when looking for prior art on specific patent reads, our success rate is over 80%.

Over the years GIS has developed a methodology that differs from other search companies in being both efficient and delivering only the information you need. For many search companies, the deliverable is enormous amounts of references that you have to sort through yourself. Other companies will first conduct a database search, turning up a large number of documents that they examine for you. However, the large number of documents that must be reviewed can eat through your budget without providing the “best reference needed”.

GIS uses a very selective approach. Starting with a “field of use” search, a small number of specific and relevant documents are identified and this path of research is further followed. This may in turn uncover new documents, which may lead to further documents. The end result is one or a handful of relevant prior art references as well as the search path taken. You receive a small, manageable number with the text of interest identified. The process is quick and efficient, and having the search path documented, it is easy to continue the search at a later date if necessary.

Often, before you come to GIS for prior art searches, you will have done some searching on your own. To take this into account, we will keep you up to date on our progress in order that we may combine our knowledge with yours to ensure that the same searching is not repeated unnecessarily. It also gives you the option of shortening or extending the search time based on the results discovered to gain the maximum benefit from your limited budget.

Global Intellectual Strategies is an Intellectual Property (IP) consulting company. Contact us at www.gistrategies.com

Arlington Industries v. Bridgeport Fittings: A case of claim construction

noreply@blogger.com (Marc) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:35:00 +0000

In the case of Arlington Industries v. Bridgeport Fittings, Inc. the question of whether the district court improperly imported a limitation from the specification was addressed. The majority held that the District court erred by importing a "split" limitation into its constructions of "spring steel adapter". However, in a decent Judge Lourie discusses how the patent holder should be limited to claim only what is disclosed in the specification. For further details on this case see the link below.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2011/01/arlington-industries-v-bridgeport-fittings-the-specification-is-the-heart-of-the-patent.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29
Global Intellectual Strategies is an Intellectual Property (IP) consulting company. Contact us at www.gistrategies.com

noreply@blogger.com (Global Intellectual Strategies) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:22:00 +0000

Patent Portfolio Management

Managing your patent portfolio, whether you have just of few patents or 10s of thousands is one of the more difficult challenges for a corporate IP group. To know your existing patents; their technology, scope, strengths, limitations, as well as keeping up on your newly issued patents is a never ending task.

GIS offers a variety of services to help with Patent Portfolio Management.

Patent Portfolio Mining: Finding the gems in a portfolio is one of our specialties. GIS has a proven track record of picking the high value patents out of the crowd.

Patent Reviews: Whether you are looking for a 3rd party opinion of your patents, or you simply do not have the time or expertise to evaluate a particular group of patents, GIS’s mix of patent and technical expertise will help you get the job done.

Patent Landscape: A Patent Landscape is a high level analysis of a group of related patents. The analysis looks at macro-level trends such as identifying the top patent holders, or patenting trends by specific companies. It can also be used as the basis of a Freedom-to-Operate analysis.

Patent Divestiture: Patents that provide no benefit to the assignee may be sold to generate revenue. GIS can help by first reviewing patents to identify candidates to be sold as well as acting as a broker to find potential buyers and complete the sale.

Patent Acquisition: Another key source of patents is to purchase them. In these situations you must often evaluate a portfolio in a very short time to decide whether to place a bid and decide how much to bid. One of GIS’s specialties is finding the key patents in the portfolio on a tight schedule, and delivering to you the information you need in order to make your decision.

Patent Valuation: Many small and medium sized companies would like to list their patents as assets to enhance the value of their company for financing or M&A purposes. GIS can provide the technical and business data on which a valuation can be made.

Contact us today for more information.

A Solution for Probing Modern Multi-Chip Packages

noreply@blogger.com (Global Intellectual Strategies) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:56:00 +0000

Modern Multi-Chip Modules (MCM) can cause all manner of problems for signal probing. Jet-etching is a tried and true method for gaining access to critical signals while leaving the components in the package operational. But what options does an Engineer have when jet-etching is not feasible? read about it here... GIS

Probing Station - Enclosure

noreply@blogger.com (Alfio Ferrara) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:48:00 +0000

New (.... new to us) toy alert ... we just received a black steel breadbox that measures about 4 ft x 4 ft by about 3 1/2 feet high. It opens just like the traditional breadbox. and is used as an enclosure for our Reverse Engineering Lab.

Our lab is equipped with a a micro manipulator probing station that allows us to access signal pads in confined spaces. This could be a jet etched part that needs probing on the bond wire pads, or a cell phone assembly with tight probing constraints. Of course when it comes to probing it is usually done on a live circuit, and when it is on a whole system like a cell phone assembly, then the fun begins.

There are times when we need to monitor devices under different light conditions or total obscurity. This is where our new probing enclosure shines (pardon the gratuitous pun). We can now operate a circuit or device in total and controlled darkness and monitor the signals in the comfort our well lit lab. Too cool....

Please feel free to contact us if you have you would like further details on our capabilities.

Know where you stand: Patent Landscapes at GIS

noreply@blogger.com (Global Intellectual Strategies) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:23:00 +0000

You have a patent portfolio. You know the patents and technology in it. However, do you know how it stacks up against the patent holdings of others in the industry? Is your position dominant or are you a bit player? Is the field wide-open or crowded with other patents? The Patent Landscape service from GIS is designed to answer these questions and more. GIS will do a broad analysis of the patents in a particular technology field identifying the players, and the technology involved.

The analysis will answer the following questions:

* Who are the leading patentees in a particular field?
* Within a particular technology, what specific problems are being addressed and what solutions are being patented?
* What are my competitors patenting? What product features may I see over the next year or two?
* How does my patent portfolio compare against the competition?
* Who has patents that I may want to purchase?
* I am planning on introducing a product into a country for the first time. Who are the patent holders in this jurisdiction, and should I try to get a license from them?

These are key considerations relevant to the design and implementation of your patent portfolio management strategy. Leverage from GIS’ patent analysis experience and get the information that enables the right decision.
Contact us today for more information.

Prior Art

noreply@blogger.com (Global Intellectual Strategies) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:06:00 +0000

One of GIS’ specialties is prior art searches. To effectively and successfully find prior art requires the balance of patent and technical knowledge that GIS has. GIS uses a methodology developed and proven over the last 20 years and has a success rate of over 80% when targeting specific patent reads.

As a service to our clients, we have prepared an example of a prior art report based on a recent court case in the Eastern District of Texas in the United States. Though we often customize reports and deliverables for each client, the sample report shows a typical example of our work product. To receive a sample of the report, e-mail us at sales@gistrategies.com.

The Right Approach for the Right Situation

noreply@blogger.com (Global Intellectual Strategies) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:34:00 +0000

GIS works with a wide spectrum of clients involved in patent licensing, patent litigation, and patent management. In dealing with such a wide range of clients and their individual situations we have come to realize that a flexible approach is required to meet our clients’ needs.

One example is reverse engineering and infringement analysis. Far more effort goes into producing a claim chart documenting infringement for litigation than for a patent sale or when choosing patents for a cross-licensing negotiation. Furthermore, the reverse engineering to support litigation may involve extensive testing or circuit reverse engineering while reverse engineering for other purposes may be done quickly and economically based on the use of public documentation alone.

Prior art searches are done in a similar manner. Only a few hours of searching may be allocated at the preliminary stages of a patent negotiation while several weeks may be involved with a patent litigation involving a sole patent. A limited search may be limited to easily accessible online databases while a more extensive search may involve visits to technical libraries and finding and interviewing researchers and practitioners in the field.

Determining and recommending the right approach for each client and their particular situation is one of GIS’ strengths and one that helps us build lasting relationships with our clients.
Contact us today for more information.

Supreme Court Exhaustion Case (Costco vs. Omega Int'l)

noreply@blogger.com (Marc) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:52:00 +0000

Omega is a division of Swatch and sells watches at a higher price in the US than it does in other countries. Costco purchased Omega watches from a third-party importer, and this allowed Costco to purchase the watches at a low price and re-sell the watches at a price much lower than the suggested retail price. Omega sued Costco for copyright infringement of a US copyright to a symbol on the watch face.

The 9th Circuit ruled in favor of Omega — "holding that the first sale doctrine did not apply to foreign manufactured copies that were purchased abroad". The Supreme Court has recently affirmed the 9th Circuit decision but without opinion. Specifically, this was a 4–4 split decision and the case will not be seen as precedent-setting.

For further details see the links below:

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2010/12/supreme-court-does-not-decide-costco-v-omega-intl-exhaustion-case.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2010/04/supreme-court-to-decide-case-of-international-copyright-exhaustion.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29

Patenting Business Methods: Amazon.com vs. Commissioner of Patents

noreply@blogger.com (Marc) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:29:00 +0000

In the recent case of Amazon.com, Inc vs. The Attorney General of Canada and The Commissioner of Patents the patentability of Business Methods was addressed. The Patent Application in question deals with on-line purchasing. Particularly, Amazon's one-click Patent Application was rejected by the Canadian Commissioner of Patents.

In this case the Federal Court of Canada reversed the Commissioner's descision - holding that business methods "can be patented in appropriate circumstances". A ruling on business method patents has been long awaitted in Canadian practice. However, an appeal has been filed and the Intellectual Property community will be following the developments of this case closely.

For further details see the link below.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2010/10/business-method-patenting-in-canada.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29

GIS Attends KOTRA Foreign Investment Week 2010 in Seoul, Korea

noreply@blogger.com (David@GIS) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:22:00 +0000

On November 2-3, GIS attended KOTRA's Foreign Investment Week 2010 in Seoul, Korea. Co-sponsored by Invest Korea and the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy the event brought together investors and journalists from all over the world to learn more about how foreign companies can invest in Korea.

Patenting Business Methods: Amazon.com vs. Commissioner of Patents

noreply@blogger.com (Marc) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:49:00 +0000

In the recent case of Amazon.com, Inc vs. The Attorney General of Canada and The Commissioner of Patents the patentability of Business Methods was addressed. The Patent Application in question deals with on-line purchasing. Particularly, Amazon's one-click Patent Application was rejected by the Canadian Commissioner of Patents.

In this particular case the Federal Court of Canada reversed the Commissioner's descision - holding that business methods "can be patented in appropriate circumstances". A ruling on business method patents has been long awaitted in Canadian practice. However, an appeal has been filed and the Intellectual Property community will be following the developments of this case closely.

For further details see the link below.

http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2010/10/business-method-patenting-in-canada.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PatentlyO+%28Dennis+Crouch%27s+Patently-O%29