Smart & Biggar again successfully represented J.R. Simplot, the respondent in this appeal from a 2025 judgment of the Federal Court that found that the use by J.R. Simplot of pulsed electric fields (PEF) to pretreat potatoes before further processing into French fries did not infringe the Plaintiff’s Canadian Patent No. 2,412,841 (the “’841 Patent”). The Federal Court also found that, in the alternative where the asserted claims of the ‘841 Patent were construed to cover PEF processing of the sort used by J.R. Simplot, the asserted claims would be invalid on the basis of claim overbreadth and inutility (see McCain Foods Limited v J.R. Simplot Company, 2025 FC 1078)
The patentee’s appeal was dismissed from the bench by the Federal Court of Appeal.