Canadian Intellectual Property Office Publishes Draft Trademark and Industrial Design Regulations

On June 19, 2017, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (the Office) published draft regulations under the Trade-marks Act and the Industrial Design Act for consultation with the public. The draft regulations implement various legislative amendments passed in 2014 and 2015. The amendments constitute significant changes to Canadian practice, including the implementation of the international requests for trademark and industrial design protection under the Madrid Protocol and the Hague Agreement.

The proposed Trademarks Regulations include significant changes to Canadian trademark practice. The changes introduce a per-class application and renewal fee structure, pursuant to which an initial fee covers only one class, and there is an additional fee for each additional class. Further changes include provisions for dividing and merging trademark applications, changes to the timing for certain steps in opposition proceedings, and implementing the Madrid Protocol.

The proposed regulations also implement some of the more controversial aspects of the 2014 amendments to the Trade-marks Act, which are not yet in force, including reducing the term of registration from 15 to 10 years and eliminating the requirement to provide a filing basis for an application.

The proposed Industrial Design Regulations implement a system of international registration for industrial design under the Hague Agreement. In addition, the draft regulations restrict the type of amendments that can be made to pending applications, and impose new time limits on filing divisional applications.

The Office is seeking questions and comments for the draft Industrial Design Regulations until July 14, 2017 (further information available here).

The consultation for the draft Trademark Regulations ends July 21, 2017 (further information available here).

Summary By: David Bowden