Amazon filed its responding brief in the “one click” patent appeal. As Amazon notes, “The Appeal raises issues fundamental to the Canadian patent system: (i) the proper approach to patent claims construction, and (ii) the scope of patentable subject matter in Canada.”
The appeal arises out of Amazon’s application for a patent for an invention entitled “Method and System for Placing a Purchase Order Via a Communications Network”. The application relates to a communications network based method and system for placing an order and, more particularly, to a method and system for purchasing and ordering items over the Internet.
The Patent Office rejected the application on subject matter grounds. On an appeal to the Federal Court Justice Phelan reversed that ruling finding the claimed invention patentable. The AG of Canada and the Commissioner of Patents appealed the decision to the Federal Court of Appeal.
In its brief Amazon argues that the Commissioner erred by introducing policy considerations in making its decision on the patentability of Amazon’s application; its approach to claim construction is wrong; the Commissioner advocates for an overly restrictive definition of patentable “art” which ignores the binding jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and is wrong. In short, it argues that business method inventions are patentable in Canada and it is entitled to a patent for its “one-click” invention.