In June 2015, Canada's Competition Bureau released its updated draft of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines (Draft IPEGs) for public review and consultation. The Draft IPEGs are intended to reflect the 2009 amendments to the Competition Act, including the changes to the criminal conspiracy provisions and the introduction of a new civil competitor collaboration provision. The other principal objective of the Draft IPEGs is to set out the Bureau's initial enforcement positions regarding several issues involving the nexus between competition law and intellectual property law that have attracted considerable attention recently. These include two topics that are of particular interest to the pharmaceutical industry: patent litigation settlement agreements and "product switching." In this article, which was originally published in CPI Antitrust Chronicle, Davies partners Anita Banicevic and Mark Katz describe and discuss the Bureau's views as reflected in the Draft IPEGs as well as the practical implications for the pharmaceutical industry in Canada.
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