Patent Rules (SOR/2019-251)

Marginal note:Late fee

45 For the purposes of subsection 27(7) of the Act, the prescribed late fee is the fee set out in item 7 of Schedule 2.

Marginal note:Text in English or French

46 The text matter in the abstract, the description, the drawings and the claims, other than any text matter contained in a sequence listing, must be entirely in English or entirely in French.

Marginal note:Page margins — description, claims and abstract

• 47 (1) The minimum margins of pages that contain the description, the claims or the abstract must be as follows:

  • top margin, 2 cm
  • left margin, 2.5 cm
  • right margin, 2 cm
  • bottom margin, 2 cm

• Marginal note:Page margins — drawings

  (2) The minimum margins of pages containing the drawings must be as follows:

  • top margin, 2.5 cm
  • left margin, 2.5 cm
  • right margin, 1.5 cm
  • bottom margin, 1 cm

• Marginal note:Blank margins

  (3) Subject to subsections (4) and (5), the margins of the pages referred to in subsections (1) and (2) must be completely blank.

• Marginal note:File reference

  (4) The top margin of the pages referred to in subsections (1) and (2) may contain in either corner an indication of the applicant’s file reference.

• Marginal note:Line numbering

  (5) The lines of each page of the description and of the claims may be numbered in the left margin.

Marginal note:Line spacing

• 48 (1) All text matter in the description and the claims must be at least 1 1/2 line spaced, except for sequence listings, tables and chemical and mathematical formulas.

• Marginal note:Font size

  (2) All text matter in the description and the claims must be in characters the capital letters of which are not less than 0.21 cm in height.

Marginal note:New page

49 The petition, the abstract, the description, the drawings and the claims must each begin on a new page.

Marginal note:Page numbering

• 50 (1) The pages of the specification must be numbered consecutively.

• Marginal note:Position of page numbers

  (2) The page numbers must be centered at the top or bottom of each page, but must not be placed in the margin.

Marginal note:No drawings

• 51 (1) The petition, the abstract, the description and the claims must not contain drawings.

• Marginal note:Formulas

  (2) The abstract, the description and the claims may contain chemical or mathematical formulas.

Marginal note:Identification of trademarks

52 A trademark mentioned in an abstract, a specification or a drawing must be identified as such.

Petition

Marginal note:Title and content

53 A petition must bear the title “Petition” or “Request” and must contain

• (a) a request for the grant of a patent;

• (b) the title of the invention; and

• (c) the name and postal address of the applicant.

Inventors and Entitlement

Marginal note:Information on inventors

• 54 (1) The application must indicate the name and postal address of each inventor of the subject-matter of the invention for which an exclusive privilege or property is claimed.

• Marginal note:Statement

  (2) The application must contain

  • (a) a statement to the effect that the applicant is or, if there are joint applicants, the applicants are entitled to apply for a patent;

  • (b) a statement to the effect that the applicant is the sole inventor of the subject-matter of the invention for which an exclusive privilege or property is claimed or, if there are joint applicants, the applicants are all inventors and the sole inventors of that subject-matter; or

  • (c) in respect of a PCT national phase application, a declaration as to the applicant’s or, if there are joint applicants, the applicants’ entitlement on the filing date to apply for and be granted a patent in accordance with Rule 4.17(ii) of the Regulations under the PCT.

• Marginal note:Translation

  (2.1) If all or part of a declaration referred to in paragraph (2)(c) is in a language other than English or French, the applicant must submit to the Commissioner an English or French translation of the declaration or part in question.

• Marginal note:Manner of presentation

  (3) The statement and information required by this section must be included in the petition or submitted in a document other than the abstract, the specification or the drawings.

Abstract

Marginal note:Inclusion of abstract

• 55 (1) An application for a patent must contain an abstract that has a concise summary of the disclosure that appears in the description, claims and drawings and, if applicable, must include the chemical formula that, among all the formulas included in the application, best characterizes the invention.

• Marginal note:Technical field

  (2) The abstract must specify the technical field to which the invention relates.

• Marginal note:Drafting

  (3) The abstract must be drafted in a manner that allows an understanding of the technical problem, the gist of the solution of that problem by means of the invention and the principal use or uses of the invention.

• Marginal note:Scanning tool

  (4) The abstract must be drafted in a manner that can efficiently serve as a scanning tool for the purposes of searching in the particular art.

• Marginal note:Word limit

  (5) The abstract must not contain more than 150 words.

• Marginal note:Reference to drawings

  (6) In the abstract, a feature may be followed by a reference character placed between parentheses, if that feature is illustrated in the drawings of the application for a patent.

• Marginal note:Amendment or replacement of abstract

  (7) If the Commissioner considers that an abstract does not comply with subsections (1) to (6), the Commissioner is authorized to amend or replace the abstract.

• Marginal note:Abstract not relevant

  (8) An abstract must not be taken into account for the purpose of interpreting the scope of protection sought or obtained.

Description

Marginal note:Contents, manner and order

• 56 (1) The description must include the following information, set out in the following manner and order:

  • (a) the title of the invention must be stated in a short and precise manner and must not include a trademark, coined word or personal name;

  • (b) the technical field to which the invention relates must be specified;

  • (c) the background art that, as far as is known to the applicant, is important for the understanding, searching and examination of the invention must be described;

  • (d) a description of the invention must be set out in terms that permit the technical problem and its solution to be understood, even if that problem is not expressly stated;

  • (e) the figures in the drawings, if any, must be concisely described;

  • (f) at least one mode contemplated by the inventor for carrying out the invention must be set out using examples, if appropriate, and with reference to the drawings, if any; and

  • (g) a sequence listing, if required by subsection 58(1), must be included.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) The description may be presented in a different manner or order if, because of the nature of the invention, a different manner or order would result in a better understanding or more economical presentation of the invention.

Marginal note:No incorporation by reference

• 57 (1) The description must not incorporate any document by reference.

• Marginal note:No reference to certain documents

  (2) The description must not refer to a document that does not form part of the application for a patent unless the document is available to the public.

• Marginal note:Identification of documents

  (3) Every document referred to in the description must be fully identified.

Sequence Listings

Marginal note:PCT sequence listing standard

• 58 (1) If a specification discloses a nucleotide sequence or amino acid sequence that must, in accordance with the PCT sequence listing standard, be included in a sequence listing and that is not identified as forming a part of the prior art, the description must contain the sequence listing in electronic form and both the electronic form and the content of the sequence listing must comply with the PCT sequence listing standard.

• Marginal note:One copy per application

  (2) An application for a patent must not contain more than one copy of a particular sequence listing regardless of its form of presentation.

• Marginal note:Statement — application originally filed without sequence listing

  (3) If an application for a patent originally filed without a sequence listing is amended to include one, the applicant must file a statement that the listing does not go beyond the disclosure in the application as filed.

• Marginal note:Sequence identification number

  (4) If a sequence included in a sequence listing is referred to in the claims, the drawings or the part of the description other than sequence listings, the reference must include the sequence identification number, as defined in the PCT sequence listing standard, preceded by “SEQ ID NO:”.

• Marginal note:Definitions

  (5) The following definitions apply in this section.

  amino acid sequence

  amino acid sequence has the same meaning as in the PCT sequence listing standard. (séquence d’acides aminés)

  nucleotide sequence

  nucleotide sequence has the same meaning as in the PCT sequence listing standard. (séquence de nucléotides)

Drawings

Marginal note:Requirements

• 59 (1) Subject to subsection (2), the drawings must be in black, sufficiently dense and dark, well-defined lines to permit legible reproduction and must not be photographs.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) If an invention does not admit of illustration by means of drawings complying with subsection (1) but does admit of illustration by means of photographs, the drawings that must be furnished for the purposes of subsection 27(5.1) or (5.2) of the Act may be photographs.

• Marginal note:No colourings

  (3) Except in the case of photographs, the drawings must be without colourings.

• Marginal note:Cross-sections

  (4) Except in the case of photographs, cross-sections in the drawings must be indicated by hatching that does not impede the reading of the reference characters and lead lines.

• Marginal note:Numbers, letters and lead lines

  (5) All numbers, letters and lead lines in the drawings must be simple and clear.

• Marginal note:Proportionality

  (6) Elements of the same figure must be in proportion to each other unless a difference in proportion is necessary for the clarity of the figure.

• Marginal note:Font size

  (7) Numbers and letters in the drawings must be at least 0.32 cm in height.

• Marginal note:Multiple figures

  (8) A single page of the drawings may contain several figures.

• Marginal note:Figure spread out on multiple pages

  (9) If a figure is spread out over two or more pages, each part of the figure must be so arranged that the entire figure can be assembled without concealing any part of the figure.

• Marginal note:Numbering of figures

  (10) If there is more than one figure, the figures must be numbered consecutively.

• Marginal note:Reference characters

  (11) A reference character not mentioned in the description must not appear in a drawing and vice versa.

• Marginal note:Consistent use of reference characters

  (12) A reference character used for a particular feature must be the same throughout the abstract, the specification and the drawings.

• Marginal note:No unnecessary text

  (13) The drawings must not contain text matter except to the extent necessary to understand the drawings.