Is patent law entirely statutory?

Apotex argues that it is an overstatement to say patent law is entirely statutory, citing common law developments such as the concepts of “obviousness” and “double patenting,” the right to sue those who induce infringements of patents, and that patents are exigible in the context of creditors’ relief under provincial legislation. However, each of these examples is, in the words of Lord Walker in Synthon B.V., simply “judge-made doctrine [which] has over the years done much to clarify the abstract generalities of the statutes and to secure uniformity in their application.” As Lord Walker continued at para. 58 (quoted with approval by Rothstein J. in Apotex v. Sanofi-Synthelabo, at para. 12), “it is salutary to be reminded, from time to time, that the general concepts which are the common currency of patent lawyers are founded on a statutory text, and cannot have any other firm foundation.”