Useful and Non-Obvious News – Spring / 16

By Adam Mizera

Full-Text Patent Search Now Available in Espacenet

Since Spring 2016, it is now possible to do full-text searches for patents in the Espacenet database for certain types of patents. In the European patent and international patent application databases, one can now perform a full text search in the description and claims of all European patent applications (EP) and published international patent applications (PCT), using any of the official languages of the European Patent Office (English, German and French). Previously, these searches were limited to the text of the abstract and title only.

For more information, click on the following link.

Canada: Competition Bureau Releases Updated Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines

The Competition Bureau released updated Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines (IPEGs) on March 31, 2016.

The updated IPEGs provide clarification on the Competition Bureau’s approach to conducting investigations of alleged anti‑competitive activities related to intellectual property. The main revisions to the guidelines include clarification on the Bureau’s position on patent settlements, in particular in the pharmaceutical industry. The revised guidelines also address the conduct of patent assertion entities and of standard essential patent owners.

The updated guidelines are available on the following link.