The Forefront of Patent Law: Artificial Intelligence and Beyond

Patent law provides inventors with a time-limited monopoly over their inventions. In so doing, it seeks to incentivize innovation and ensure the timely disclosure of inventions to the public. Various doctrines of patent law have been developed to maintain these competing goals. 

The course will explore current issues that are at the vanguard of patent law, and that are currently percolating through the Canadian and U.S. courts. Issues to be covered will include: artificial intelligence and how its ubiquitous nature is expected to impact patent validity, including AI as inventor, AI rendering patents obvious, and the ability to patent AI software; patentable subject matter, including a forthcoming Supreme Court of Canada decision on the patentability of methods of medical treatment; third party liability for patent infringement, as addressed in contrasting recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal; and available remedies for patent infringement, including as recently addressed by the Supreme Court of Canada. Through a discussion of these issues, the aim will be to develop an understanding of how seemingly disparate doctrines of patent law hang together (or not) in achieving the above-noted balancing act. 

This course is suitable for those who have an interest in intellectual property generally and/or patents specifically, and have completed or are completing Introduction to Intellectual Property Law.  While this is not a formal pre- or co-requisite, Introduction to Intellectual Property Law (LAW384H) or Patent and Trade Secrets Law (LAW332H) are strongly recommended.