December 10, 2011 by Dan Whalen
Dan Whalen is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and is enrolled in Professor Mgbeoji’s Patents class in Fall 2011. As part of the course requirements, students are asked to write a blog on a topic of their choice. This blog was written before the Federal Court of Appeal decision in Amazon.com was released.
The patentability of business methods in Canada will soon come one step closer to final resolution, following the impending Federal Court of Appeal decision in the matter of Amazon.com’s “one-click checkout” patent application. Although I believe that Phelan J of the Federal Court was correct to allow for such patents, he was perhaps overly dismissive of policy concerns in his reasons.1 The higher court(s) may not similarly restrict themselves. Indeed, the participation of interveners in the appeal will almost undoubtedly broaden the scope of the court’s decision.2 It is thus timely to discuss several reasons why, as a matter of public policy, I believe that business methods should not be excluded from patentability.
Follow Comments via RSS