No Right to Appeal Determination That a Substantial New Question of Patentability Is Raised by Re-examination Request

Cusitar v. Canada (Attorney General) 2019 FC 1641 McVeigh J

2,876,770 / Oil Sand Mining and Haulage Method

This decision, affirming a decision of the re-examination board cancelling all 15 claims of the 770 patent for obviousness [23], turned largely on the facts, but the patentee did raise one novel argument relating to the scope of an appeal. 

Re-examination is governed by s 48.1-48.5 of the Act. A request for re-examination may be made by any person who submits prior art and pays the required fee: s 48.1(1). After such a request is made and the re-examination board is established, the first task of the Board is to determine whether the request raises a “substantial new question of patentability” (SNQP) affecting any claim: 48.2(2). If not, the person who made the request is so notified, and the re-examination proceeding is closed. A negative decision is final, expressly without right of appeal or review: 48.2(3). (Dismissal of the re-examination request does not bar the requesting party from bringing a subsequent impeachment action.) If, as in this case, the Board finds that an SNQP is raised, the Board notifies the patentee and the re-examination goes ahead. At the conclusion of the process, the Board issues a certificate that may cancel, confirm or amend the claims: s 48.4(1). This is subject to appeal: specifically, the patentee may appeal any decision “set out in a certificate issued under subsection 48.4(1)” to the Federal Court: 48.5(1).

In this case, the patentee appealed the adverse decision pursuant to 48.5(1), but one of the grounds of appeal was the threshold determination by the Board that the request raised a substantial new question of patentability [29.A.1]. McVeigh J held that this is not a proper ground of appeal. As noted, the Act provides expressly that there is no appeal from a determination that there is not an SNQP; but it does not expressly state that there is no appeal from a determination that there is an SNQP. However, as McVeigh J noted, the Act only provides for an appeal from “[a]ny decision of a re-examination board set out in a certificate issued under 48.4(1) [34, original emphasis], and the decision that there is an SNQP is not a decision set out in the certificate, which merely states (in this case) that “claims 1-15. . . are unpatentable” [35]. Moreover, re-examination is intended to be a “relatively summary and inexpensive alternative to an impeachment process by litigation,” and allowing an appeal from the SNQP determination would introduce delay and undermine this aim [36]. Thus textual and purposive considerations both support the conclusion that there is no right of appeal of a determination by the Board that the re-examination request raises an SNQP.