Archive for January, 2009
« Older Entries |Canadian Distiller Wins Latest Round In Trademark Battle
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Just in time for Robbie Burns day, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that a Canadian distiller of whiskey can use the word GLEN in its trademark, without misleading Canadian consumers into thinking that its product is whiskey that is from Scotland. This is the latest round in the battle by Bedford, Nova Scotia based Glenora Distillers to register the mark GLEN BRETON in the Canadian Intellectual Property Office in association with its single malt whiskey. There’s no word yet on whether the Scotch Whiskey Association will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Posted in Case Law, Registration | No Comments »
Trade-marks Act Amendments: Put Down That Glass of Canadian Burgundy!
Monday, January 12th, 2009
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.
Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Foreign Protection, Legislation | No Comments »
Section 45 Proceeding Practices to Change Again?
Friday, January 9th, 2009
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.
Posted in Legislation | 2 Comments »