Tausi Insider

Canada’s top court on Friday denied plastics company Nova Chemicals’ appeal of a C$645-million ($482-million) payment awarded to the Dow Chemical Co in a patent infringement case. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld a ruling by a lower court that had awarded the amount to the Dow Inc unit, calculated based on profits Nova made due to the patent breach. Nova disputed those calculations in its appeal of that ruling. https://www.tausiinsider.com/supreme-court-upholds-dows-record-645-million-patent-infringement-award/?feed_id=334663&_unique_id=6483a3977843f

The federal court of appeal says it will uphold all but one of the rules that bolster compensation for air passengers subjected to delayed flights and damaged luggage. The court on Tuesday dismissed the appeal that challenged the validity of the passenger bill of rights, with the exception of one regulation that applies to the temporary loss of baggage. Air Canada AC-T and Porter Airlines Inc., along with 16 other appellants that include the International Air Transport Association had argued that the passenger rights charter launched in 2019 violates global standards and should be rendered invalid for international flights. In court filings, the airlines argued the regulation exceed the Canadian Transportation Agency’s authority and went against a multilateral treaty by imposing compensation requirements for flight cancellations or lost baggage that were too stringent. The CTA and Attorney-General argued there is no conflict between the passenger protections and the treaty. The FCA i...

Drugmakers GSK Plc, GSK-N Pfizer Inc, PFE-N Sanofi SA and Boehringer Ingelheim on Tuesday defeated thousands of lawsuits in U.S. federal court claiming that the heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer, as a judge found the claims were not backed by sound science. While the companies, which have all marketed the drug at different times, still face tens of thousands of similar lawsuits in state courts, the ruling by U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach, Florida, knocks out a significant portion of their potential liability. “We are extremely surprised by this miscarriage of justice and fully expect that the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal will reverse these rulings on appeal,” lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a joint statement. Zantac, first approved in 1983, became the world’s best selling medicine in 1988 and one of the first-ever drugs to top $1 billion in annual sales. Originally marketed by a forerunner of GSK, it was later sold successively to Pfizer, Boehringer ...

The Competition Bureau has expanded its appeal of the Competition Tribunal’s decision to permit a proposed $20-billion deal between the telecoms, adding two claims of legal error to its initial arguments. The bureau will face off against Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. at the Federal Court of Appeal on Jan. 24, just one week before the takeover deadline of Jan. 31 set by the companies. The tribunal is a quasi-judicial body that adjudicates cases brought by the bureau, an independent law-enforcement agency that seeks to protect competition in Canada. The bureau is arguing the tribunal should have first considered the deal just between Rogers and Shaw alone, and then the divestiture of Freedom Mobile to Quebecor Inc., instead of considering the divestiture alongside the original deal. But the tribunal ruled that even if it had analyzed the merger as the bureau wanted, it would have come to the same decision. Opinion: Canadians should be wary of the rushed Rogers...

Mariano Abarca is shown in this still image taken from 2009 video in Chicomuselo, Chiapas. Dominique Jarry-Shore/The Canadian Press The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal from family and supporters of a Mexican activist who was killed after opposing a Canadian company’s mining project. The applicants had asked the top court to review a federal ombudsman’s decision not to investigate the matter. The case stretches back to 2007 when Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration Ltd. opened a barite mine in Chiapas, Mexico, prompting local opposition, demonstrations and a blockade of a route to the project. After being beaten and threatened with death for leading protests over the mine’s environmental and social effects, activist Mariano Abarca was fatally shot outside his home in November 2009. Members of Abarca’s family and organizations concerned with mining abuses asked the public sector integrity commissioner in 2018 to probe whether there was wrongdoing by members of the Canadi...

Rogers Communications Inc. says the Competition Bureau’s appeal of its $20-billion takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. should be dismissed, claiming the law enforcement agency overlooked key facts and wrongly interpreted the Competition Tribunal’s assessments of evidence as legal error. In documents submitted to the Federal Court of Appeal, Rogers RCI-B-T made its case on behalf of Shaw SJR-B-T and Videotron Ltd. in response to the written arguments submitted last week by Competition Commissioner Matthew Boswell. In December, the Competition Tribunal had dismissed the bureau’s claims that the merger would result in less competition among telecommunications providers in Canada. The companies and the bureau will face off before the court on Jan. 24. The bureau has argued that the tribunal should have initially considered the deal only between Rogers and Shaw, without the Freedom Mobile divestiture as a remedy to the loss of competition that could result from the takeover. In its factu...