''Free World Trust v Électro Santé Inc'',

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2 S.C.R. 1024, 2000 SCC 66, is a leading

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

decision on patents, namely claim construction and the necessity to identify essential elements and non-essential elements. Along with the related decision, '' Camco v. Whirlpool'' (2001), 9 C.P.R. (4th) 129 (SCC), the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the doctrine of equivalents applied in the United States and adopted the doctrine of purposive construction, as originally applied by the United Kingdom House of Lords in '' Catnic v. Hill & Smith''. This was a landmark decision as it resolved the uncertainty in Canadian case law between the two doctrines. The Court also articulated the scope of protection provided by patents and the requirements for infringement.

Background

Electro-magnetic therapeutic system is the English title of Canadian Patent 1,113,156 which was issued in 1981. The inventors Dr. Roland A. Drolet and Gaetan Charland, both from Canada, claimed that the device was an "electro-magnetic device for treating various types of rheumatic and arthritic diseases."
The invention related to a technique of bombarding human bodies with low-frequency electromagnetic waves and controlled the wave frequency using "circuit means". On November 24, 1981, Dr. Drolet and Mr. Charland received patent approval for their electro-magnetic therapeutic system.The Government of Canada (GoC)
CIPO - Patent - 1113156 : Electro-magnetic therapeutic system
Department:

Industry Canada Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED; french: Innovation, Sciences et Développement économique Canada; french: ISDE, label=none)''Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal I ...

. Agency:

Canadian Intellectual Property Office The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO; French: ''Office de la propriété intellectuelle du Canada, OPIC'') is responsible for the administration and processing of the greater part of intellectual property (IP) in Canada. CIPO's areas ...

(CIPO), Accessed 26-03-2008. Their drawings, as portrayed within the Canadian patent, labeled the device "Ri - 2000 MAGNETOTHERAPY SYSTEM". By 1983, Dr. Drolet and Mr. Charland were issued another patent titled "''ELECTRO-MAGNETIC THERAPEUTIC SYSTEM AND METHOD''" which described the "''Ri - 2000''" in much further details and labeled the device as "''Ri -2000 RHUMART-THERAPY SYSTEM''". This second patent maintained many similar characteristics to the 1981 patent. In fact both patents drew and labeled their devices with "''RODROL INSTRUMENTATION INC.''". ''Free World Trust'' was the rightful owner of the patents of invention numbered 1,113,156 (the "'156 patent") and 1,150,361 (the "'361 patent") issued in 1981 and 1983 respectively.
Free World Trust V. Électro Santé Inc. : I. Facts 4
'' No. 26406,. Supreme Court of Canada. Decision rendered 15 Dec. 2000. Accessed 29-03-2008 On December 15, 2000, in the case of ''Free World Trust v. Électro Santé Inc.'', a decision was rendered by the

on the infringement of patents 156 and 361. The decision would create a legal precedent cited in at least 148 Canadian trials. The case was even noted in Canada for setting out "the test for

patent infringement Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...

" and "the principles of purposive claim construction".Sotiriadis, Bob et al.
L’IMPACT D’UNE INTERPRÉTATION TÉLÉOLOGIQUE SUR DES RECOURS JUDICIAIRES EN MATIÈRE DE CONTREFAÇON DE BREVETS AU CANADA : 5.0 Les arrêts Whirpool et Free World Trust : les questions en jeu
''." Centre CDP Capital et LEGER ROBIC RICHARD, p.8. Accessed 30-03-2008. The court transcripts explain that ''Électro Santé Inc.'', a competitor, developed similar technology that used a

microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable i ...

rather than the circuits. Free World Trust sued Électro Santé for patent infringement on the ground that although the means may be different the end result of the inventions were the same. The

Quebec Superior Court The Superior Court of Quebec (french: Cour supérieure du Québec) is a superior trial court in the Province of Quebec, in Canada. It consists of 157 judges who are appointed by the federal government. Appeals from this court are taken to the Qu ...

found that Électro Santé's invention was not

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

and so their invention was invalidated. The Court of Appeal overturned the decision and found that there was no violation. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court ruling.

Opinion of the court

Justice Binnie wrote the decision for a unanimous Court. He began by describing the process of interpreting a patent through "claim construction". Claim construction is the process where the inessential part of the patent are distinguished from its essential elements which are protectable by patent. In this case, the essential elements of the two patents held by Free World included controls that regulated the electro-magnetic waves "by circuit means". This invention, Binnie found, was more than a mere aggregation of known components and was not anticipated by publications. The primary issue to Binnie was how to resolve the conflict between "literal" and "substantive" infringement. He states that one of the purposes of the

Patent Act Patent Act and Patents Act (with their variations) are stock short titles used in Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States for legislation relating to patents. A Patent Act is a country's legislation that con ...

is to achieve fairness and predictability in order to promote

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

. He was concerned that protection provided by a broad reading of a patent would scare innovators from exploring similar ideas surrounding a claimed patent. According to Binnie, predictability could be achieved by "tying the patentee to its claims" and fairness would be achieved by "interpreting those claims in an informed and purposive way". Binnie was hesitant for courts to attempt to find the "spirit of the invention" which would create more uncertainty and unpredictability. His proposed "purposive construction" approach would avoid literal interpretation while limiting the scope of substantive claims in attempt to balance fairness between the patentee and the public. Purposive construction identifies the essential from the non-essential. The analysis is from the perspective of a " worker skilled in the art to which the patent relates as of the date the patent is published". If an essential element is different or missing from the challenged invention then there is no infringement. However, there may still be infringement where only non-essential elements are different or missing. A non-essential element is one that, from the words of the claim, are not clearly intended to be essential, or where a skilled reader would have been able to identify a substitute. In applying these principles to the facts of the case, Binnie found that Electro Sante's invention did not infringe upon Free World's patent. The essential elements of these inventions are not the results they produce but the way of producing them. The patent holder cannot monopolize all means of producing a particular result. The use of a

was significantly different that it constituted a different invention.

Notes

External links

Trial * Patents
Canadian Patent 1113156

{{DEFAULTSORT:Free World Trust V. Electro Sante Inc. Canadian patent case law Supreme Court of Canada cases Electromagnetism Bioelectromagnetic-based therapies 2000 in Canadian case law

Background

Opinion of the court

See also

Notes

External links