FCA Affirms that Dead Application is Dead

University of Alberta v. Canada (Attorney General) 2018 FCA 36 Near JA: Webb, Laskin JJA aff’g 2017 FC 402 Russell J
            Application 2,804,560

S 37 of the Patent Rules provides that a patent application “must contain. . . a declaration that the applicant is the legal representative of the inventor.” The ‘560 application, filed by an agent on behalf of TEC Edmonton, had no such declaration. CIPO timely issued a requisition to TEC’s agent. TEC’s agent did not respond do that requisition or to a subsequent notice of abandonment, which stated that the application could be reinstated within a further 12 months pursuant to s 73(3). TEC then assigned the its right in the 560 Application to the University of Alberta, and a new agent was appointed, but the new agent did not respond to the original requisition or to the Notice of Abandonment. Two years after the requisition was issued, the 560 application was marked as dead, meaning that the time for reinstatement had passed. A year after that, the University of Alberta filed a petition effectively asking CIPO to reinstate the ‘560 Application. CIPO refused on the basis the 560 application was beyond the period of reinstatement. As discussed here, Russell J refused. The University appeal to the FCA, which, unsurprisingly, affirmed. The FCA did hold that Russell J had erred in holding that the appellants were seeking judicial review of the requisition, and consequently the FCA held that CIPO’s decision should be reviewed on the merits [15]. That did not help the applicant, because the FCA held, on a straightforward reading of the relevant provisions, that the application was deemed abandoned once the applicant failed to timely respond to the requisition [23], and CIPO has no discretion to reinstate a patent application once it is deemed abandoned and the period for reinstatement has passed [24].