Diversified Products Corp v Tye-Sil Corp is a Federal Court of Appeal

Federal Court of Appeal (Canada)

The Federal Court of Appeal is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters arising from certain federal Acts. The court was created on July 2, 2003 by the Courts Administration Service Act when it and the Federal Court were split from its predecessor, the Federal Court of...

 decision concerning the Presumption of Validity in Canadian Patent Law.

Background

The patent in question here was entitled "Convertible Exercise Apparatus." The patent owners brought an action against Tye-Sil Corp for infringing their patent by selling a similar product in Canada. The defendant argued that the patent was invalid for a number of reasons. The Trial court found that the patent was valid and had been infringed.

The Decision of the Court

The Court of Appeal dismissed the defendant's appeals. In his reasons, Décary JA notes that the Patent Act creates the presumption that any granted patent is valid. Justice Décary referred to jurisprudence and commentary that was divided on what evidence was required to overturn this presumption. The Court appears to prefer the bursting bubble approach, where the presumption is overturned by the introduction of evidence to rebut it, to the approach where the onus to disprove the presumption is "not an easy one to discharge". Ultimately, the Court applied the common law burden of persuasion, the balance of probabilities, to this section of its analysis.

The Court further determined that the patent had not been anticipated and that the invention was not obvious. As a result, the appeal was dismissed.