Patent Branch
Proposed Practice Notice on "Title of Invention"

• Consultation update
• Consultation period
• Consultation document

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Consultation Update: January 30, 2009

The Patent Branch received the following feedback:

• Leonora Hoika, President, Intellectual Property Institute of Canada
  (PDF - 21 Ko - 1 page)

Important notice: Please note that access to this section is provided as a courtesy only. Therefore, comments are in the language in which they were submitted to CIPO.

The Practice Notice was subsequently published in the January 27, 2009 issue of the Canadian Patent Office Record (CPOR).

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Consultation period: December 8, 2008 to January 16, 2009.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is taking this opportunity to seek your feedback on a proposed Notice clarifying its position with respect to the practice of changing titles of invention in patent applications.

Your comments will be taken into consideration and will add value to the process of creating our Practice Notice. They will also be posted on this website following the consultation period.

Contact information:

Should you wish to provide us with your comments on this matter, please send them by email to the Client Service Centre at cipo.contact@ic.gc.ca, by fax at (819) 994-1989, or by regular mail to the following address:

Canadian Intellectual Property Office
Patent Branch
50 Victoria Street,
Place du Portage II
Gatineau, QC  K1A 0C9
Attention: Félix Dionne

Preferred formats are PDF, WordPerfect, or Microsoft Word.

Thank you for your participation and interest in this important matter.

Barney de Schneider
Assistant Commissioner of Patents
Canadian Intellectual Property Office

Consultation Document

Proposed Practice Notice: Title of invention

December 8, 2008

NOTE : This practice notice is intended to provide guidance on current Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) practice and interpretation of relevant legislation and should not be quoted as, or considered to be, a legal authority. In the event of any inconsistency between this notice and the applicable legislation, the legislation must be followed. It is the responsibility of the applicant/patentee to decide how to proceed with respect to a particular application or other matter.

By this notice the Patent Office is clarifying its position with respect to the practice of changing titles of invention in patent applications.

In accordance with paragraph 80(1)(a) of the Patent Rules, [similar to PCT Rule 5.1(a)], the description shall state the title of the invention.

In instances where the title of the invention in the description differs from the title in the Petition for Grant of a Patent (for applications other than PCT national phase applications), the Request under article 4 of the PCT or the Request for Entry into the National Phase in Canada, the Office will only have regard to the title as specified in the description.

If the applicant wishes to amend the title in the description, a new page 1 of the description must be submitted in accordance with section 34 of the Patent Rules.

It is to be noted that the Office will not issue any corrected filing certificates, corrected acknowledgements of national entry, or corrected Form RO/105 where any discrepancy exists between the title in the description and any other document.

Should an amended page 1 of the description be submitted after allowance, it must be received in the Office on or before payment of the final fee and include the fee specified in item 5 of Schedule 2. Otherwise, the application will grant and issue to patent with the title as it appears on the first page of the description.

Patentees may wish to use section 8 of the Patent Act to correct clerical errors in the title as it appears in the description if such error(s) exist. That said, errors due to discrepancies between the title in the Petition, Request under article 4 of the PCT or the Request for Entry into the National Phase in Canada which are not clerical in nature (i.e., did not arise in the mechanical process of typewriting or transcribing) will not be corrected under authority of section 8.