Canada’s New Trademark Laws

Earlier this month, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) published a new set of Trademark Regulations and announced that amendments to Canada’s trademark laws will go into effect on June 17, 2019. The CIPO’s website describes the regulatory initiative as “accession to trademark treaties and modernization of Canada’s trademark regime.” As summarized by the Canadian Trademark Blog, the amendments include:

Canada’s accession to the Madrid Protocol;

eliminating filing bases and use of a mark as a prerequisite;

introducing a requirement of grouping goods and services into Nice classes;

introducing a shortened 10 year term for registration and renewal; and

introducing new distinctiveness requirements for registration.

The Canadian Trade-marks Act is available here. The new Trademark Regulations are available here.