Osgoode Hall Review of Law and Policy (OHRLP)

This paper will consider the principle grounds on which the validity of selection patents are attacked, namely anticipation, obviousness, double patenting, lack of utility and insufficiency, with a view to exploring the doctrinal underpinnings for challenging a selection patent as an “improper selection”. As will be discussed further below, “improper selection” comfortably fits within existing grounds of invalidity and, in particular, obviousness, lack of utility and, surprisingly, ambiguity.

Anna Wilkinson, Improper Selection: A Separate Ground of Patent Invalidity in Canada? (2010) Osgoode Hall Rev. L. Pol’y 19.