litigation

Trademark Interlocutory Injunctions: A POWERful Tool—When Available

By In Branding, Case Law, Litigation, Protection & Enforcement

As Canadian trademark practitioners know, historically it has generally been difficult to obtain interlocutory (or interim) injunctions in trademark infringement matters. This has been particularly so due to the difficulty in showing irreparable harm, if the injunction were not granted.

As the recent decision of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Corus Radio Inc. v. Harvard Broadcasting Inc., 2019 ABQB 880 shows, there may be some novel ways to argue irreparable harm, including what is essentially a consideration of ‘lost opportunity’. In this case, a trademark owner was able to convince the Court to enjoin use of similar marks by another party, notwithstanding some 15 years’ absence of use by the owner in the relevant marketplace.

Read more in this Knowledge Bytes article.

Distinctly (not) distinctive

By In Case Law, Litigation, Protection & Enforcement

The Supreme Court of Canada recently denied leave to appeal from the Federal Court of Appeal’s (the “FCA”) decision in Sadhu Singh Hamdard Trust v. Navsun Holdings Ltd., 2019 FCA 10 (CanLII). Caroline Camp writes about the implications of the case. Most interesting is that the FCA confirmed that intervening use of a mark by a third party, even if that use amounts to infringement of a registered trademark, can be sufficient to cause the registered mark to lose its distinctiveness and therefore become unenforceable. So the mantra “use it or lose it” is actually “use it and enforce it or lose it” in Canadian trademark practice. Read her complete article here.

A look back: What you need to remember from 2018 in trademark law

By In Case Law, Litigation

As summer comes to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on some of the significant case law developments that occurred in 2018, which have, and continue to have, an impact on Canadian trademark law and practice. Our colleague Scott Lamb is a contributor to CLE BC’s perennially anticipated Annual Review of Law & Practice, writing the Trademarks chapter. Key litigation developments from last year are succinctly summarized in an excerpt from Scott’s chapter here.