In the US, a few updates on the patent front:

• The House version of the patent reform legislation passed (the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act ) in late June, with broad support. You may recall that the US Senate passed its own version of the patent reform bill in March. The House and Senate bills must now be reconciled, with another vote on compromise legislation before it becomes law.
• In a recent US decision, a court found that “induced infringement” can be established without showing actual knowledge of the infringed patent.  “Induced infringement” under US patent law traditionally requires that a party actually knows that the infringed patent exists.  In Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A. (PDF), the US Supreme Court decided that wilful blindness will be enough to establish induced infringement. Canadian inventors should be aware that actively ignoring information or taking deliberate actions to avoid learning of a competitors patent will not help in avoiding a finding of induced infringement, and thorough patent searching is required when developing patentable inventions.

Related Reading: Willful Blindness of a Patent Is Sufficient to Show Knowledge of That Patent for Purposes of Induced Infringement (Licensing Executives Society)

Calgary – 07:00 MT