The trademark registration process in Canada will have some significant changes this year as a result of the trademark law reform which has been addopted recently.

The main changes that have to be taken into account by all who want to protect a trademark in there are:

1. The term of trademark protection will be reduced from 15 to 10 years.

2. Declaration of Use will be no longer required from trademark applicants – as it is well-known Canada, similarly to The US, has required until now such declarations which to show a real use of the sign on the market. This was one of the significant differences when it comes to trademark filing compare to Europe, for instance. But no more. Still, trademark use will remain an important element of the protection because it will be a ground for invalidation in the case of a lack of genuine use.

3. Canada will introduce Nice Classification for goods and services for the purpose of trademark filing. In that way, Canada has joined almost all countries around the world that already use this classification.

4. An additional fee will be paid for every class above the first in case of filling of a trademark application or trademark renewal.

Source: April L. Besl (Dinsmore & Shohl LLP), Lexology.