Abigail Browne

The applicant, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, applied under section 52 of the Patent Act to add Dr. Mark J. Evans as an inventor to two Canadian patents.

The omission of Dr. Evans was due to inadvertence and not for the purpose of delay.

The Attorney General of Canada did not oppose the application.

The Federal Court granted the application, ordering the Patent Office records to be varied to include Dr. Evans as an inventor.

The applicant sought judicial review of a decision by the Minister of Health refusing to add a patent to the Patent Register under s 4(6) of the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations because the submission was past the 30-day deadline.

The applicant argued the Time Limits Act (COVID-19) suspended the deadline or that the Minister had discretion to extend it.

The Federal Court upheld the Minister's decision as reasonable, confirming that the 30-day timeline was strictly applied and not suspended by the COVID-19 relief legislation.

The plaintiffs sought leave to appeal an interlocutory order that dismissed their motion for additional documentary production from the Crown, upheld claims of solicitor-client privilege between a Crown prosecutor and Environment Canada investigators, and allowed the Crown to claw back inadvertently disclosed privileged documents.

The Divisional Court dismissed the motion for leave to appeal, finding no good reason to doubt the correctness of the motion judge's decisions, which properly applied principles of proportionality and solicitor-client privilege.

The court also found that the proposed appeal did not involve matters of general importance, as the issues were specific to the parties.

The parties sought costs following a series of motions concerning document production and privilege.

The plaintiffs had been unsuccessful on all their motions, including an attempt to set aside prior orders based on unproven allegations of fraud against the Crown.

The Crown and another defendant, Sandra Antoniani, were successful in their respective motions.

The court awarded partial indemnity costs to Antoniani in the amount of $25,635.80.

The court awarded the Crown $25,000 in partial indemnity costs for its clawback motion and $45,000 in substantial indemnity costs for responding to the plaintiffs' motions, noting the plaintiffs' unproven allegations of fraud and unnecessary prolongation of the proceedings.

The plaintiffs sued the Crown and others for misfeasance in public office and defamation related to regulatory charges.

The plaintiffs moved for further document disclosure, arguing the Crown's production was deficient compared to documents released under the Access to Information Act.

The Crown moved to claw back privileged documents inadvertently disclosed under the Act.

The court dismissed the plaintiffs' motions, finding that the different criteria for civil discovery and access to information requests explained the discrepancy in document volume.

The court upheld the Crown's claims of solicitor-client privilege over communications between the prosecutor and regulatory investigators, and found that the inadvertent disclosure did not constitute a waiver of privilege.

The plaintiffs were ordered to return and destroy the privileged documents.

The plaintiffs, engaged in the hazardous waste disposal business, were investigated by Environment Canada, resulting in the execution of two search warrants and the laying of charges.

The plaintiffs commenced multiple Small Claims Court actions against the Crown defendants and various officials, alleging improper conduct during the investigations and searches.

These actions were transferred to the Superior Court and consolidated.

The plaintiffs brought a motion for leave to amend their statement of claim to divide the action into four separate claims and to add new causes of action, including negligence, Charter breaches, misfeasance in public office, and malicious prosecution, as well as new parties.

The defendants opposed the amendments, arguing they were statute-barred by the Limitations Act.

The court granted the plaintiffs' motion to amend, finding that the original pleadings contained sufficient material facts to support the alternative theories of liability, while granting the defendants leave to raise limitation period defences in respect of certain claims.