Bill C-86, the budget bill that implements changes to the Patent Act, the Trade-marks Act and the Copyright Act, enacts the College of Patent Agents and Trade-mark Agents Act and makes changes for IP licenses in insolvency received royal assent yesterday. Bill C-86 received minor amendments as it went through parliament.
Tag Archives: Trademarks
USMCA
My latest column for Slaw has been published, on the IP changes included in the US Mexico Canada trade agreement. The agreement is supposed to be signed Friday but reports are that the countries are still in discussions. Continue reading USMCA
Budget Changes
Introduced yesterday, budget bill C-86 includes changes to the Patent Act, Trade-marks Act, Copyright Act, enacts the College of Patent Agents and Trade-mark Agents Act and makes changes for IP licenses in insolvency. Some highlights include a college to regulate agents, reform of the Copyright Board, allows patent file histories to be admissible to rebut claim constructions, add bad faith as a ground of opposition for trademarks, and adds requirements for notices under the notice-and-notice copyright regime.
Trademarks and Patents
Amendments to the Trade-mark Act and Patent Act, Patent Rules and Trademark Regulations are being made as of November 5, 2018 to amend the procedures on CIPO holidays and force majeure events, and as of June 2018 to patent reinstatements .
Canadian Trademark Filings in 2017
About 55,000 trademark applications were filed in Canada in 2017. Of these, about 25% were filed in-house or without an agent (up slightly from previous years, and up from 17% in 2010). Check out my list of the 50 firms/agents that filed the most applications in 2017.
Top 5 trademark filers in 2017: Brandster Branding Ltd., Target Brands, The Procter & Gamble Company, Johnson & Johnson, and L’Oreal. Continue reading Canadian Trademark Filings in 2017
Trademarks Regulations
Proposed changes to the Trademarks Regulations were published (link) in the Canada Gazette (Part I) for consultation until March 11, 2018. The changes, among other things, implement the Singapore Treaty, the Madrid Protocol and the Nice Agreement. CIPO held consultation on earlier versions of these changes in 2017. (See earlier post)
Practice Notices
Three practice notices came to my attention this week:
- Practice Notice from CIPO for Objection Proceedings for Geographic Indicators under new section 11.13 of the Trade-marks Act
- Practice Notice and guidance from the Federal Court on the scheduling of applications
- Customs Notice advising that the Canada Border Services Agency Border Watch Line accepts information on shipments of counterfeit or pirated goods that are dangerous
CETA
Changes to the Patent Act, Patent Rules, Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations and the Trade-marks Act, and new Certificate of Supplemental Protection Regulations come into force on September 21, 2017 as part of Canada’s implementation of CETA. Today, Health Canada released guidance documents on applying for Certificates of Supplementary Protection and on Health Canada’s administration of the PM(NOC) Regulations.
CETA
The final regulations for implementing CETA in Canada were published today in a special edition of the Canada Gazette. As compared to the proposed regulations published earlier this summer, the final versions the IP related regulations are very similar, with no changes to the Regulations Amending the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations, 2017, two changes to the Certificate of Supplementary Protection Regulations and no changes to Rules Amending the Patent Rules. As reported yesterday, the changes come into force September 21, 2017. Continue reading CETA
CETA
A series of Orders in Council dated last week but published today confirm that most of the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act will come into force September 21, 2017. This includes expanded geographic indicators, certificates of supplementary protection and changes to the PM(NOC) Regulations.