All posts by Alan Macek

Innovation Report

The report, “Intellectual Property in Ontario’s Innovation Ecosystem”, was published today by Ontario’s Expert Panel on IP chaired by Jim Balsillie: “… it was clear that the most significant recurring themes revolved around questions of capacity-building in IP education and access to specialized IP legal services as well as the structure and governance of the various ‘public sector’ entities within the ecosystem.” Continue reading Innovation Report

NAFTA 2.0

Bill C-4 was introduced today to implement the Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement. The IP related changes are substantially the same as those included in Bill C-100 introduced last May. Bill C-4 include a new criminal provisions on trade secrets, trademark changes on importation and in-transit goods, and some changes on copyright term (although not a general extension to life+70).

Continue reading NAFTA 2.0

TM Practice Notices

CIPO posted new and amended practice notices for several aspects of trademark procedures:

  • extensions of time in examination – the office will no longer grant extensions of time unless exceptional circumstances are shown;
  • filing of divisional applications without a specific e-service;
  • transitional provisions for Nice classifications;
  • renewal of applications that do not have Nice classifications; and
  • temporarily appointing a trademark agent for dealing with Nice classifications.

Continue reading TM Practice Notices