Once again, the Federal Court has found that the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) has failed to follow the jurisprudence on determining patentable subject matter.

In the recent decision of Dusome v. Canada (Attorney General) 2025 FC 1809 (”Dusome”), which involved a patent application for a method of playing a poker game with physical cards or on a computerized system, the Federal Court found that CIPO failed to:

• properly construe the claims;
• asses whether the construed claims are subject matter eligible;
• assess the inventive aspects of the construed claims; and
• apply the correct definition of patentable “art”.

Dusome is a reminder that even if CIPO misapplies the law on subject matter eligibility for a patent application, appeals to the Federal Court are available.

Notably, the appellant in Dusome was self-represented. In the end, the Federal Court remitted the patent application back to CIPO for reconsideration with regards to the question of subject matter eligibility.

Click here to read the full case.