Yesterday, the Parliament of Canada completed the final steps to
pass Bill C-31, the somewhat cryptically-named Act to implement
certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February
11, 2014 and other measures, or Economic Action Plan 2014
Act, No. 1 for short.
In addition to amending several Canadian laws, this bill introduced
some sweeping changes to the Trade-marks Act (now the
un-hyphenated "Trademarks Act"), including the
ratification of the Singapore, Madrid and Nice treaties. The bill
also includes several important structural changes to the Canadian
trademark regime, such as removing the requirement at the time of
filing to otherwise identify whether the mark has been used or is
proposed to be used, removing the requirement for use of a mark in
Canada before registration, introducing divisional applications and
permitting the Registrar to object to applications as
non-distinctive during examination.
While Bill C-31 received both Third Reading and Royal Assent on
June 19, 2014, its provisions will come into force over the next
few months, with most of the provisions expected to be fully
implemented by January 1, 2015. A more detailed analysis of the
what Bill C-31 means for Canadian trademark practice will follow in
a future release. In the meantime, please contact the authors for
any questions in relation to the new law.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.