CIPO Releases Its Plan

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office recently released its 2009-2010 Business Plan to the public. The Plan is designed to direct CIPO toward its goal to “be a leading intellectual property office that is recognized for excellence in its products and services while strengthening Canada’s innovative capacity through ongoing quality improvement and continuous development of employees.”

For trademark practitioners, owners and other stakeholders, the Plan contains a few interesting tidbits:

  • the Trade-mark Opposition Board plans to establish a new service standard of four months from the date of a hearing for the issuance of final decisions of the Registrar in both section 45 and opposition cases;
  • the Board also plans to use 2009 to create an action plan relating to the goal of making section 45 and opposition case decisions available online;
  • similarly, CIPO as a whole will use 2009 to assess activities and determine requirements related to planned support of:
  • the online filing of extension of time requests for the Trade-marks Opposition Board;
  • the online filing of extension of time requests at the examination stage for trade-marks;
  • certain enhancements to the electronic application filing system for trade-marks; and
  • the electronic transmission of examiner’s reports and trade-mark correspondence.

The Trade-marks Branch also plans to conduct a feasibility assessment related to the prospective implementation of a program to assist unrepresented owners seeking trade-mark protection, similar to programs currently offered by each of UK’s Intellectual Property Office and IP Australia.

Oily Loonie offside Official Mark?

Dogwood Initiative, a British Columbia environmental group, is facing legal action from the Royal Canadian Mint over a campaign to add one million oily loon decals to loonies in circulation.  (For our international readers, “loonie” is the commonly used term used to refer to the Canadian one dollar coin.)  Dogwood’s campaign is intended to create awareness about the risks of oil tanker traffic on BC’s north central coast, in the hopes that legislation might be passed banning such traffic.

The Royal Canadian Mint has alleged Dogwood Initiative’s activities bring it offside the Currency Act, but query whether the Mint may also have an action under the Canadian Trade-marks Act (the "Act"), for infringement of the Mint’s Official Mark rights in the loonie.

Section 9 of the Act deals with Official Marks, and in particular, it prohibits the adoption in connection with a business, as a trade-mark or otherwise, of any mark which consists of, or so nearly resembles as to be mistaken for, an Official Mark. Read more

Trade-marks Act Amendments: Put Down That Glass of Canadian Burgundy!

On December 31st, while many readers (and writers!) of the Canadian Trademark Blog were likely raising a glass to celebrate the New Year, long-awaited amendments to the Canadian Trade-marks Act quietly came into force.  The changes pertain to Section 11.1 of the Act which deals with geographic indications.  In particular, the amendments eliminated several terms from a list of wine names that had been deemed generic, and accordingly available for use by anyone, in Canada.

The amendments were motivated by an agreement struck in 2003 between the Canadian government and the European Community concerning trade in wine and spirits.  Under the terms of that deal, the Canadian government agreed to amend the Trade-marks Act to gradually eliminate the use of certain European wine and spirit names on Canadian labels, thereby opening the door to European producers to apply for the protection of these names as geographical indications in Canada. Read more

Section 45 Proceeding Practices to Change Again?

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has announced that it will soon open a public consultation period relating to proposed changes to Section 45 proceedings.  The Office advises its goal is to modernize and streamline the Registrar’s practice; what precisely this means, however, is not yet known.

Nonetheless, a few details have emerged: the anticipated changes will include a new practice of issuing, in limited cases, final decisions directly following the filing of evidence; changes are also expected to the Registrar’s practice concerning the granting of extensions of time.

We’ll provide a detailed discussion of the possible changes once the proposed practice notice is made available.

Practitioners Warm to Cooling-Off Periods

Regular readers of the Canadian Trademark Blog will recall that this past fall we reported on a public consultation undertaken by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office respecting proposed revisions to trademark opposition proceeding practices.

CIPO has recently released a compendium of the comments and suggestions it received during the consultation process.

While the submissions touch upon a broad number of issues implicated by the proposed practice notice, their common thread relates to the proposed “cooling-off” period.  Nearly all of the submissions argue that to make the “cooling-off” period available only prior to the filing of a counter-statement is counterproductive to the amicable settlement of the proceeding.  Instead, they argue that the request for a cooling-off period should be available at any time during an opposition proceeding.

In a posting on its site, CIPO advises that the proposed practice notice will be amended “to reflect decisions taken by CIPO as a result of comments received from stakeholders during the consultation period.”  Precisely what changes CIPO will make, however, will not be known until later this month when CIPO posts the revised practice notice on its website.  The final practice notice is expected to be published in the Trade-marks Journal and come into effect in February 2009.

“Bad Faith” Decision Bad News for Applicants?

A recent Opposition Board decision highlights a little-examined area of Canadian trademark law, raising questions pertaining to the entitlement to file a trademark application, and issues of good faith related thereto.

In Cerveceria Modelo, S.A. de C.V. v. Marcon, issued August 12, 2008, the Trade-mark Opposition Board upheld an opposition brought by Cerveceria Modelo against Marcon’s application to register the trademark CORONA for use in association with both a variety of beverages and with beverage bottling services.

The application was opposed on several grounds, including alleged confusion with Cerveceria Modelo’s familiar CORONA trademark. Additionally, the opposition was also founded on Marcon’s alleged failure to comply with s. 30(i) of the Trade-marks Act, which requires the applicant to file with the Registrar an application that contains a statement that the applicant is satisfied that “he is entitled to use the trade-mark in Canada in association with the wares or services described in the application.” Read more

Latest Olympics Trademark Dust Up Is Of Anthemic Proportions

A Canadian Press Story today reports that the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games (VANOC) has recently filed applications with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) to register the phrases WITH GLOWING HEARTS and DES PLUS BRILLIANTS EXPLOITS as trademarks. These applications are filed based on proposed use in Canada in association with a lengthy shopping list of goods and services. They also claim priority from earlier filed European Community Trademark (CTM) applications, filed with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) in March of 2008. Interestingly, the CTM applications are filed in the name of Filemot Technology Law Ltd. and not VANOC.

Canadian readers will immediately recognize WITH GLOWING HEARTS and DES PLUS BRILLIANTS EXPLOITS as phrases from “O Canada”, the Canadian national anthem. Copyright buffs out there might already know that the anthem was long ago placed in the public domain by the Government of Canada pursuant to the National Anthem Act. Read more