Canadian Innovation Week, namely November 16th to November 20th this year, is a movement organized by the Rideau Hall Foundation and Canadian Innovation Space which seeks to recognize Canadians advancing their respective industries and sectors, to connect individuals across the country and to encourage collaboration, creativity and innovation amongst current and future innovators. Canadian Innovation … Continue Reading
Industrial design registrations under the Industrial Design Act (the “Act”) are similar to design patents in the US. They protect the features of a product that are visually appealing and not purely utilitarian. They can consist of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or combination of pattern and color in three-dimensional form, … Continue Reading
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has published a Fee-for-service proposal (the Proposal), seeking public input by July 5, 2016. The Canadian government significantly amended the Trade-marks Act (the Act) in 2014, in order for Canada to accede to the Singapore Treaty, the Nice Agreement and the Madrid Protocol. Those amendments have not yet come into force, however, pending the adoption of new Regulations on … Continue Reading
As of September 28, 2015, the Canadian Trade-marks Office (“CIPO”) indicated that it accepts trade-mark applications with the goods and services grouped and classed according to the Nice Classification system. CIPO issued a Practice Notice entitled Nice Classification on September 28, 2015. Prior to September 28th, the Nice classification system was not used in Canada … Continue Reading
The recent amendments to Canada’s Trade-marks Act present many interesting opportunities and challenges to brand owners and their counsel. This article focuses primarily on the impacts for Canadian trademark applications that are pending at the time the amended Act comes into force—that is, applications that have been filed with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) but that … Continue Reading
