On January 18, 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada denied Vancouver Career College leave to appeal in Vancouver Community College v Vancouver Career College (Burnaby), 2017 BCCA 41 (previously reported in the E-TIPS® Newsletter).
The plaintiff, Vancouver Community College, alleged that the defendant, Vancouver Career College, passed off its educational services as those of the plaintiff through a practice known as keyword advertising. In essence, Vancouver Career College paid search engines to link to their website when users searched for the “VCC” and “Vancouver Community College” marks. The British Columbia Superior Court (SC) decided that confusion should be assessed when consumers arrive at the college’s website. The British Columbia Court of Appeal (CA) disagreed and found that confusion should be assessed when consumers are initially presented with the search results. Accordingly, the CA found that the use of the plaintiff’s marks in keyword advertising, when the search results did not distinguish the defendant from the plaintiff, amounted to passing off.
Summary By: Jae Morris