Canada’s New Trademark Law Set to Come Into Force June 17, 2019

On November 14, 2018, the Government of Canada announced that amendments to the Trademarks Act and Regulations are set to come into force on June 17, 2019 (Order in Council, PC 2018-1329).  The Government of Canada also published new Trademarks Regulations in Canada Gazette, Part II.

The Trademarks Act was amended in 2014 and 2015 (previously reported in the E-TIPS® newsletter here and here).  The new Act and Regulations include significant changes to Canada’s trademark law in order to reflect the requirements of the Madrid Protocol, Singapore Treaty and Nice Agreement.

Some of the notable changes include:

• reducing the term of registration from 15 years to 10 years (existing registrations will not be converted to a 10 year term);
• expanding the definition of a trademark to include non-traditional marks, such as, sound, hologram, scent, taste, colour and texture;
• eliminating the date of first use requirement;
• eliminating declarations of use;
• introducing the possibility to divide or merge applications;
• adopting the Nice Classification of goods and services;
• introducing fees per class; and
• implementing the Madrid Protocol, which offers the possibility of obtaining trademark protection in a number of countries by filing one single international application.

For more information, please see CIPO’s website or contact us.

Summary By: Michelle Noonan