CanLII¶

Read-only access to the CanLII REST API — Canadian courts, tribunals, statutes, and regulations. The IP-relevant slice covers the Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Canada, Trade-marks Opposition Board (TMOB), the Commissioner of Patents — Patent Appeal Board, plus the Patent Act / Trademarks Act / Industrial Design Act / Copyright Act with point-in-time entry-into-force markers.

Auth¶

Free API key by request via the CanLII feedback form. Set CANLII_API_KEY in your environment.

Quick Start¶

from patent_client_agents.canlii import (
    BrowseCasesInput,
    CanLIIClient,
    GetCaseInput,
    GetLegislationInput,
    SubjectMatter,
    browse_cases,
    get_case,
    get_legislation,
)

async with CanLIIClient() as client:
    # 20 most recent TMOB decisions
    cases = await client.browse_cases(database_id="tmob-comc", result_count=20)

    # Detailed view of a single case
    dunsmuir = await client.get_case(database_id="csc-scc", case_id="2008scc9")

    # Patent Act — point-in-time consolidated
    act = await client.get_legislation(database_id="cas", legislation_id="rsc-1985-c-p-4")

Functions¶

Function	Description
`list_case_databases()`	All courts / tribunals
`browse_cases(database_id, ...)`	Paginated list with date filters
`get_case(database_id, case_id)`	Full case metadata
`get_cited_cases(database_id, case_id)`	Citator: cases this one cites
`get_citing_cases(database_id, case_id)`	Citator: cases that cite this one
`get_cited_legislations(database_id, case_id)`	Citator: legislation cited
`list_legislation_databases()`	Statute / regulation databases
`browse_legislation(database_id)`	List statutes within a database
`get_legislation(database_id, legislation_id)`	Metadata with start / end dates

Common Databases¶

`database_id`	Coverage
`csc-scc`	Supreme Court of Canada
`fca`	Federal Court of Appeal
`fct`	Federal Court (patent / TM infringement)
`tmob-comc`	Trade-marks Opposition Board
`cab-cab`	Commissioner of Patents — Patent Appeal Board
`cas`	Federal statutes (Patent Act lives here as `rsc-1985-c-p-4`)
`car`	Federal regulations

Limits and ToS¶

HTTPS only
result_count capped at 10,000
10 MB response cap (surfaces as ApiError(413))
High-volume scraping discouraged; keys revocable
Citator endpoints are English-only

MCP Tool Surface¶

MCP tools register only when CANLII_API_KEY is set in the server's environment (matches the JPO env-gating pattern — tools are absent from tool/list on deployments that don't carry the key). Nine tools mirror the library functions: list_canlii_case_databases, search_canlii_cases, get_canlii_case, get_canlii_cited_cases, get_canlii_citing_cases, get_canlii_cited_legislations, list_canlii_legislation_databases, search_canlii_legislation, get_canlii_legislation.