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Manuel Fortin

holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s in biomedical engineering. He is a partner at Tessier et Associés and is associated with Prévost Fortin D’Aoust. His client base includes mainly individual inventors and small and medium sized businesses, with an emphasis in the biomedical, drilling and optics industries. He can be reached via Email.

Recent Articles by Manuel Fortin

Don’t settle for less: Maximizing patent protection in Canada

Another unnecessary limit that US applicants almost always impose on themselves is in the number of claims. In Canada, there are no extra claim fees. As we all know, more claims are most of the times a good thing. In many cases, adding claims would require additional drafting and the applicant may not be willing to spend more on claim drafting. However, there are a few cases in which additional drafting efforts are small and for which adding existing claims to the Canadian patent application would be cost effective.

Canada is underestimated as a patent filing country for US applicants

Even with its relatively small population, Canada is the largest export market for the US, with about 200 billion dollars worth of exports each year. Exporting to Canada from the US is a well-known process, and an inventor or company wishing to do so will have no difficulty in finding a company that can handle all the required paperwork and logistics. Even if one does not wish to export to Canada, licensing or sale of a patent is always a possibility. I have many clients whose business model revolves around finding products that sell well in the US and which are likely to sell well in Canada, having these products manufactured in China, and selling them in Canada. I often get asked to confirm that one of these products is not protected by a patent in Canada. If there is no Canadian patent, my clients are able to profit from the US inventor’s ingenuity.