

Canada's Guide to patents - lemieux
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr01089.html

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Permit
This doesn't really speak much to software patents (I'm assuming those are of
particular interest to HN). Does anyone know what the status of software
patents in Canada is currently? If I were to judge solely based on the
articles I read, the problems with patent trolls seems to be an exclusively
American problem.

Reading: <http://www.jurisdiction.com/spcanada.htm> says that in 1993, the
Canadian Patent office updated its terms regarding software patents to:

In June 1993, the Canadian Patent Office replaced its August 1, 1978
guidelines and published them for the "information and guidance" of
practitioners. They were:

"1. Computer programs per se are not patentable.

2\. Processes which are unapplied mathematical calculations, even if expressed
in words rather than in mathematical symbols, are not patentable.

3\. A process and/or computer program which merely produces information for
mental interpretation by a human being is not patentable, nor does the process
or program confer novelty upon the apparatus which uses it.

4\. Claims drawn up in terms of means plus function which merely produces
intellectual data are not patentable.

5\. New and useful processes incorporating a programmed computer, are directed
to patentable subject matter if the computer related matter has been
integrated with another practical system that falls within an area which is
traditionally patentable.

6\. The presence of a programmed general purpose computer or a program for
such computer does not lend patentability to, nor subtract patentability from,
an apparatus or process."

~~~
unavoidable
The guidelines are actually pretty clear and the Canadian Patent Office mostly
follows those. You will generally not be able to get a patent for a piece of
software per se, although it is not very hard to attach it to a physical
process to make it patentable subject matter. Any experienced patent
prosecutor/attorney will be able to draft something that is acceptable to the
patent office.

The Amazon 1-Click patent, for example, was held to be valid because the
software and algorithms were attached to a physical system (of collecting and
storing customer information along with an automated process of inventory
gathering to shipping).

Most patent lawyers here in Canada are of the opinion that software _can_ be
patentable, and that the trend is towards patentability. The main difference
between US and Canada is not their respective Patent Acts (which are fairly
similar), but the attitude of both the Patent Office and the courts in dealing
with these things. It seems that the USPTO very easily accepts software
patents, while Canadian patent examiners seem to be a little more strict on
the requirements set out regarding software. Indeed, the Amazon 1-Click case
arose in Canada because the patent office _rejected_ Amazon's patent, rather
than the other way around as it seems more common in US.

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vy8vWJlco
Also of note via that link:

Copyright database: [http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-
cipo/cpyrghts/dsplySrch.do?lang...](http://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-
cipo/cpyrghts/dsplySrch.do?lang=eng)

Patent database: [http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-
cipo/cpd/eng/search/adv...](http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-
cipo/cpd/eng/search/advanced.html)

And on another part of the site:

Starting a business: <http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/icgc.nsf/eng/h_07064.html>

Importers database: <http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cid-dic.nsf/eng/home>

