Archive for the ‘Registration’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »CIPO Wares and Services Manual Contracts Again
Friday, May 6th, 2011
In an update to this story, this morning CIPO announced its discovery that a number of the entries it added to the Wares and Services Manual as a result of Canada’s participation in the trademark identification harmonization project conducted by the Trilateral Partners do not comply with Canadian trademark requirements.
As such, the over 12,000 Trilateral-approved entries that were added to the Wares and Services Manual yesterday are being removed today. CIPO has provided no official word on possible solutions, or a timetable for the (re)implementation of Trilateral-approved identification entries.
Posted in Legislation, Registration | No Comments »
Bigger! Better! Wares and Services Manual Expands
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
After a long wait, Canadian practitioners were delighted to learn this morning that CIPO has finally approved and activated more than 12,000 new entries in the Wares and Services Manual.
By way of background, in 2009 CIPO signed a memorandum of co-operation with the United States Patent and Trademarks Office, the Japan Patent Office and the Office for the Harmonization of the Internal Market (responsible for overseeing the CTM system). These entities – known as the Trilateral Partners – have worked in a loose association over the last few decades to promote and effect harmonization in their IP registration systems.
The Memorandum saw CIPO join the Trilateral Partners’ trademark identification project: the Partners maintain a list of identifications of goods and services that, if entered in an application for the registration of a trademark in any Partner country, will be accepted in that country.
As a condition of its accession to the Memorandum, Canada was permitted to assess the Trilateral list, and to reject a small percentage of identifications that it did not believe reflected Canadian requirements. With today’s announcement, that process is now complete, and the acceptable terms have been added to the Wares and Services Manual.
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Trademark Summary Expungement Proceedings: Evidentiary Issues
Thursday, February 10th, 2011
In 1459243 Ontario Ltd. v. Eva Gabor International, Ltd., the Federal Court set aside the Registrar’s decision expunging a trademark under section 45 of the Trade-marks Act. The parties agreed that the standard of review was one of correctness, unless new evidence would have materially affected the decision of the Registrar. At issue was whether the new affidavit filed by the Applicant was hearsay and, if admissible, whether the evidence would have affected the Registrar’s decision.
The Applicant’s new affidavit sought to introduce evidence that employees of the company had included promotional flyers bearing the trademark at issue when shipping other goods to customers. On cross-examination the deponent acknowledged he was not personally involved with the flyers. The Federal Court concluded that this evidence met the criteria of reliability and necessity required by the Supreme Court of Canada decision, R. v. Smith, particularly in the context of section 45 proceedings which are intended to be expeditious and straightforward. The Court noted that other cases had accepted the reliability of evidence given by individuals who operate businesses. The evidence was also necessary since requiring evidence from several employees would not be consistent with the summary procedure intended for section 45 proceedings.
Posted in Case Law, Registration | No Comments »