- Parties: The plaintiff was Fromfroid S.A. The defendants were Frimasco Inc. and 1048547 Ontario Inc.

- Subject Matter: The plaintiff instituted an action alleging patent infringement against the defendants. In this case, the issue was whether the defendants built and used the plaintiff’s invention before or after the patent expired.

- Ruling: The court ruled in the plaintiff’s favour. The court allowed the plaintiff’s action but dismissed the plaintiff’s motion to reopen the trial. The plaintiff’s Canadian patent no. 2,301,753 – which covered a rapid cooling ventilation system for food products – had been infringed, the court said. The evidence, though circumstantial, supported the presumption that an infringing copy of the invention had been made before the expiry of the patent in July 2018, the court added.

- Date: The hearing was set on Apr. 17, 2023. The court released its decision on July 6, 2023.

- Venue: This was a federal case before the Federal Court.

- Amount: The court ordered the defendants to jointly and severally pay $149,270 in compensatory damages, plus interest at the annual rate of 2 percent from Jan. 1, 2017 until the date of the judgment and 6 percent from the date of the judgment onward. The court also ordered the defendant 1048547 Ontario Inc. to pay $200,000 in punitive damages and ordered the defendant Frimasco Inc. to pay $50,000 in punitive damages, plus interest at the annual rate of 6 percent from the date of the judgment.