What Does It Mean When Multiple People Hve Registered A Trademark

This guide explores what trademarks are, how they tin can benefit you and your arrangement, and why registration is important.

Understanding trademarks
Filing a trademark application
Registering a trademark exterior Canada
Expungement of a trademark registration
Renewal fee
Employ in Canada (section 45 proceedings)
Transfers
Marking requirements
Policing your trademark
Common errors
Example of a trademark application
Additional Information

i. Understanding trademarks

To succeed in the business organisation world, you need to ship the correct message and develop the right paradigm. If people cannot pick your products or services out from the oversupply, they might work with some other person or company that is easier for them to notice.

In fact, some brand names that got famous in the 1920s for being reliable and high quality are still leaders today. That is because the public likes what information technology knows and trusts. Companies spend millions of dollars taking care of their corporate prototype.

A registered trademark is ane way to protect your corporate image. Registering your trademark gives you lot legal championship to it the way a human action gives you championship to a piece of existent estate.

What is a trademark? A trademark is a sign or combination of signs used or proposed to be used by a person to distinguish their goods or services from those of others.

Over time, trademarks come to stand for non only the bodily goods or services a person or visitor provides, simply also the reputation of the producer. Trademarks are very valuable intellectual property.

In that location are several types of trademarks:

An ordinary trademark includes words, designs, tastes, textures, moving images, mode of packaging, holograms, sounds, scents, three-dimensional shapes, colours, or a combination of these used to distinguish the goods or services of ane person or system from those of others. For instance, suppose you started a courier business organisation that you chose to telephone call Giddy-up. You could register these words every bit a trademark (if you met all the legal requirements) for the service that you offering.
A certification marker can exist licensed to many people or companies for the purpose of showing that certain goods or services meet a divers standard. For case, the Woolmark pattern, owned by Woolmark Americas Ltd., is used on clothing and other appurtenances.

People occasionally confuse trademarks with patents, copyrights, industrial designs and integrated circuit topographies. Like trademarks, these others are forms of intellectual property. Still, at that place are important differences:

Trademarks may exist ane or a combination of words, sounds, designs, tastes, colours, textures, scents, moving images, three-dimensional shapes, modes of packaging or holograms, used to distinguish the goods or services of 1 person or organization from those of others.
Patents embrace new and useful inventions (production, composition, machine, procedure) or any new and useful improvement to an existing invention.
Copyright provides protection for literary, creative, dramatic or musical works (including reckoner programs) and other discipline-affair known as performer's performances, sound recordings and advice signals.
Industrial designs are the visual features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament, or any combination of these features applied to a finished article.
Integrated circuit topographies are the three-dimensional configurations of electronic circuits embodied in integrated excursion products or layout designs.

Trade name vs. trademark

A trade name is the name of your business. A merchandise name can be registered under the Trademarks Human activity simply if it is also used as a trademark; that is, if it is used to identify goods or services.

For example, let us suppose that you own an ice foam business and that your company is called "A.B.C. Ltd.".

Example ane: People know your ice cream under the name "A.B.C. Ltd." because you lot utilise this proper noun as a trademark that you identify on your ice foam. Yous can therefore apply to register the trade name "A.B.C. Ltd." every bit a trademark.

Instance two: People know your ice cream by the name "North Pole", which is what you utilize to promote your product. Fifty-fifty though the name of your company is "A.B.C. Ltd," no one thinks of that proper noun when they remember of what you sell. In that case, the name "A.B.C. Ltd." is non being used as a trademark but rather as a trade name.

Annotation: A trademark registration may be cancelled if someone else in Canada has made utilise of a similar merchandise name or trademark in the past.

Registered trademark vs. unregistered trademark

When you register your trademark, you become the sole right to use the mark across Canada for 10 years. Y'all tin can renew your trademark every 10 years subsequently that.

A registered trademark is ane that has been entered in the Register of Trademarks. The certificate of registration is direct testify that you own the trademark.

You do not have to register your trademark; by using a trademark for a sure length of time, you may have rights under common law. However, if you use an unregistered trademark and cease upwards in a dispute, you lot could be looking at a long, expensive legal battle over who has the correct to employ it. If you fail to actually employ the marking for a long time, your registration may exist taken off of the Register of Trademarks, which will make information technology more difficult to prove legal ownership of the trademark.

Read about how to annals trademarks outside of Canada later in this Guide.

What you can and cannot annals as a trademark

What you can register

You can register whatsoever trademark that does not contravene the Trademarks Human activity. For more detailed information, see the Trademarks Deed.

What you can't annals

Trademarks that are by and large unregistrable include the post-obit:

Names and surnames

A trademark may not be registered if it is nothing more than a proper name or surname.

An exception is if you tin prove that your goods or services have become well known under the proper noun or surname and then that the give-and-take has acquired a second meaning in the public listen.

Clearly descriptive marks

You may not annals a trademark that clearly describes a characteristic or quality of your goods or services.

For example, the words "sweet" for ice cream, "juicy" for apples, and "perfectly clean" for dry-cleaner services could not be registered equally trademarks. All apples could be described as "juicy" and all ice cream as "sweet"; these are natural characteristics of the items. If you lot were allowed to annals these words, no other apple sellers or ice cream vendors could use them to promote their goods, and that would be unfair. But, again, if you lot can establish that "Sweet Ice Cream" has go so well known that people will immediately recollect of your production (and no 1 else'south) when they read or hear these words, y'all may be immune to register the trademark.

Deceptively misdescriptive marks

Yous cannot annals a trademark that is deceptively misleading. For example, you lot could non register "cane saccharide" for candy sweetened with artificial sweetener or "air express" for a courier service that uses ground transportation.

Place of origin

Y'all may not register a trademark that describes the geographical location where the goods or services come up from. Assuasive you to use such place names as your trademark would mean you are the only ane who can employ the geographical identify name, and that would be unfair to others who merchandise in that place. For example, y'all could not register "Italy" for lasagna.

Besides, y'all may non annals a word that misleads the public into thinking that the goods or services come from a certain place when they practice non. For instance, you could not annals "Paris Fashions" or "Denmark Furniture" as a trademark for goods or services if they did not come from there.

Words in other languages

You may not register trademarks that are the name, in any language, of the goods or services associated with your trademark. For instance, you would not be able to register the give-and-take "gelato" (Italian for "water ice cream") in clan with frozen confections; "anorak" (Inuktitut for "parka") in association with outerwear; or "wurst" (German for "sausage") in association with meat.

Confusing with a registered or awaiting trademark

Beware of trademarks that are similar to another trademark that is registered or is the subject of a previously-filed application. If your trademark is confusingly similar to a registered trademark or a pending trademark, it will be refused.

Trademark examiners look at many things when they decide whether trademarks are disruptive, including:

whether the trademarks look or audio akin and whether they propose similar ideas
whether the trademarks are used to marketplace similar appurtenances or services

Permit's go back to the example of "Northward Pole" water ice foam. Suppose another company were manufacturing and selling frozen-h2o products under the registered trademark "South Pole." The public could hands retrieve that "North Pole" and "South Pole" products are made and sold by the same visitor, and may wait that the trademarks would exist owned past the same arrangement. That could hateful your application to register "Northward Pole" would be turned down considering it could cause confusion with the registered marker "South Pole," which is endemic by another company.

For more than data on confusingly similar trademarks, you tin can refer to subsection 6(v) of the Trademarks Act.

Trademarks that are identical to, or likely to be mistaken for, prohibited marks

You may non register a trademark that is identical or similar to certain official marks unless y'all have the permission from the arrangement that controls the mark. These official marks include:

official government designs (e.g., the Canadian flag)
coats of arms of the Royal Family
badges and crests such every bit those of the Canadian Armed forces and the letters RCMP
emblems and names of the Ruby-red Cross, the Red Crescent, and the Un
armorial bearings (coats of arms), flags and symbols of other countries
symbols of provinces, municipalities and public institutions

Subject matter that is scandalous, obscene, or immoral is likewise not allowed. For example, your trademark may not include profane language, obscene visuals or racial slurs.

You may not use portraits and signatures of living people or people who take died inside the last 30 years. For example, using the photo of an existing rock group to promote your tape store is not allowed unless you lot have their permission.

A few other things you cannot practise

Y'all cannot annals a trademark if it consists of a plant variety denomination (when a right is granted to the possessor for control over the multiplying and selling of reproductive material for a particular plant diversity) or is a mark then most resembling a found multifariousness denomination that it is likely to be mistaken for it, where the application covers the plant diversity or some other plant variety of the same species.

You cannot register a trademark that indicates the geographical origin of a wine, spirit, or agricultural product or food unless your appurtenances are from that geographical surface area. For example, you could not register the trademark "Okanagan Valley" if the wine yous are making is from Ontario.

Who can apply for registration?

In club to exist entitled to registration of a trademark, an applicant must be a "person". A "person" may be an individual, partnership, merchandise matrimony, association, joint venture, or corporation. An applicant tin include two or more persons, for example "John Doe, Jane Smith".

How long does registration last?

Your registration lasts for 10 years from the date of registration. You may renew it every ten years later that for a fee.

How much does an application cost?

You must pay an application fee when submitting your application for the registration of a trademark.

What to consider before filing an application

This guide will requite you the bones information you demand to file a trademark application. However, the Registrar cannot write your application for you, give you legal or business advice, or do a search of trademarks for you.

Search the Canadian Trademarks Database

A good starting time step is to do a search of existing trademarks to check whether your trademark could exist confusing with someone else'due south. You exercise not have to practise this, but it will help you lot know whether like trademarks exist. If they practice, you could end up infringing on someone'southward trademark, which could land you lot in court.

You can practice a search through the Canadian Trademarks Database. The listings embrace trademarks (active and inactive), official marks and prohibited marks. As soon every bit the Registrar receives your application, it too becomes part of the public tape.

To do a proper search, you lot will have to check for dissimilar possible versions of the trademark that you want to register. For a standard character trademark (give-and-take or words), you should await for all possible spellings, including in French. For example, if your trademark is "North Pole," y'all would search for "North", "Nord", and "Pole."

To start your search, visit the Canadian Trademarks Database. Use our tutorial to make the most of your search.

Search trade names

Before you get any further, y'all should as well search trade names. Trade names are often used as trademarks - fifty-fifty if they are non registered.

Example of search trade names

The name of your company is "North Pole." A company chosen "Southward Pole" has never filed for trademark registration. However, if the name "S Pole" has become known for frozen-water products, the company could fence that it has rights in the name "Southward Pole" as a trade name and also as a trademark.

The Registrar would not have the proper name "S Pole" in its trademark records because it does not annals trade names. "South Pole", however, could easily find out that yous are using "North Pole", either by doing a search of the Registrar's records or by seeing your application published in the Trademarks Journal on the website of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. "South Pole" may and so challenge your application during the opposition phase in the registration process.

Please note that merchandise names can be recorded separately in each province under provincial legislation. Therefore, in that location is no unmarried, complete list of merchandise names in Canada.

Since searching trade names tin exist quite circuitous, we suggest that you lot rent a trademark agent to do the work for yous.

Consider hiring a registered trademark amanuensis

Preparing and following through on your trademark application tin can be a complex process. Whoever does it needs a lot of knowledge about trademark law and how the Registrar'due south office works.

Beware of unregistered trademark agents! They are non authorized to represent applicants in the prosecution of trademarks applications.

A trademark agent volition make sure that your application is properly written so that your trademark will be protected. This is especially of import if someone challenges your right to the trademark. You do non have to rent an agent but it is often advisable to do and then.

One time you have an agent, the Registrar will represent with that person. If you abolish that arrangement, the Role volition then correspond with you directly. You may modify trademark agents or choose to no longer accept one at any fourth dimension.

Consult the listing of registered trademark agents should you wish to rent a registered trademark agent to handle your file.

2. Filing a trademark awarding

Preparing a trademark application

A consummate application includes:

the name and mailing address of the applicant
a representation or description, or both, of the trademark
a statement in specific and ordinary commercial terms of the goods and services associated with the trademark
the statement of goods and services grouped according to the Nice Classification
the application fee
whatever other requirements specific to the type of trademark sought to be registered

You must file a separate application for each trademark that you wish to register. Yet, i application tin can cover a number of goods or services for a given trademark.

Representation or clarification

Your awarding must include a representation or clarification, or both, of the trademark which conspicuously indicates what is beingness sought for registration.

The representation may contain more than one view of the trademark if multiple views are necessary for the trademark to be clearly defined. In improver, the representation must not exceed 8cmx8cm in size.

For color trademarks or trademarks that are claiming color(s) as a feature, representations must be submitted in color, forth with a clarification of the colour(s) and where they appear in the trademark.

For sound and moving image trademarks, an electronic representation and a clarification of the trademark is required.

For more information on the representation and description requirements for not-traditional trademarks, please refer to the Practice observe on non-traditional trademarks.

Annotation: If yous wish to keep your trademark registered, y'all must register your trademark the way you lot will use it. In other words, yous must not change information technology in any way, including irresolute the colour as yous described it in your application.

Application fees

When you transport us an application to register a trademark, you must pay the application fee. The fee is made up of the base fee which includes one class of goods or services and another fee for each additional class of appurtenances or services.

You tin pay by credit card (VISA, MasterCard, or American Express), direct payment, postal money order or cheque (postal money orders and cheques must be made payable, in Canadian dollars, to the Receiver General for Canada). Exercise not add federal and provincial taxes.

Filing your application

You may file your application and pay the fee online or yous may send your finished application with your payment by postal service.

Filing date

Once the Registrar has received your application, staff will review it to make sure information technology is complete. If annihilation is missing, nosotros will contact yous to enquire for more information. One time this process is finished, we volition acknowledge that we have received your awarding and give it a filing engagement - that is, the engagement on which your application met all the filing requirements. This filing date is of import since information technology is the date used to assess who is entitled to registration in the case of confusion between co-awaiting trademarks.

You may change your application in some ways after you have filed it. However, not all changes are acceptable. Certain changes will hateful you have to file a new application.

The exam procedure

After the Office receives your application and grants information technology a filing date, nosotros:

search the trademark database to find whatever registered or pending trademark that is confusing with your trademark (if nosotros find i, nosotros will inform you)
examine the application to make certain it does non contravene the Trademarks Deed and Regulations, enhance any objection to registering your trademark and inform y'all of any outstanding requirements
publish the application in the Trademarks Journal subsequently which the public may file an opposition (claiming) to your application
register your trademark if no one opposes to your application (or if an opposition has been decided in your favour)

Examiners do a thorough search of the trademarks database to make certain that your trademark does not conflict with ane already filed or registered.

Examination

The examiner assigned to your file reviews the search results, determines if the trademark is registrable, and decides whether your application can exist canonical for advertisement. The examiner will let you lot or your agent know of any objections, if at that place are whatever. You so have a chance to respond. If your answers do not satisfy the examiner, you volition become a letter explaining that your application has been refused and telling you why. If you lot receive a refusal, you take the right to entreatment to the Federal Courtroom of Canada.

Note: There is no special grade for responding to an examiner'southward report unless you are asked to transport a revised awarding.

Pre-publication search

Earlier a trademark is advertised in the Trademarks Journal, the examiner performs second search (a pre-publication search) to make certain that no i has recently registered or practical for a trademark that would conflict with the 1 you want to annals. If there is a conflict, the Registrar will tell you lot or your agent and inquire for your comments.

Publication

If the pre-publication search does not show any new confusing trademarks, we will advertise the application in the Trademarks Journal published on our website every Wed. The Journal is the official publication that lists every awarding that has been approved for advertising in Canada. It gives information well-nigh an application, including the proper noun and address of the bidder, the file number, the filing engagement, the trademark, and the associated goods and services. By advertising applications, we requite others a chance to object to them before they are registered.

Opposition

Whatever person can oppose a trademark awarding advertised in the Trademarks Journal . The person must file either a statement of opposition or a request asking for more time to oppose within ii months of the advertisement. The proper fee must be sent with the statement of opposition or the request for more time. The Registrar volition not let whatever opposition that we consider to exist frivolous.

If your awarding is opposed and you lot practise not already have an agent, we urge you to hire one at this point. The same is true if y'all wish to oppose someone else's application. Y'all can notice a list of agents here.

Opposition is a complex and ofttimes long process. Opposition proceedings are adversarial in nature and similar to courtroom proceedings. Both parties may file evidence and written representations, cantankerous-examine the evidence of the other party, and appear at an oral hearing. After a last decision is made, it may be appealed to the Federal Court of Canada.

For more than information, visit the Trademarks Opposition Board (TMOB) web pages on opposition proceedings or contact united states.

Registration

If there is no opposition, or if an opposition has been decided in your favour, the Registrar volition annals your application and volition non await at any further challenges. The Registrar volition send you a certificate of registration and enter the trademark in the Annals of Trademarks.

Abandonment

If you do non respond to an examiner's report, the Registrar may consider your application to be abandoned. Before this happens, the Registrar will notify you lot and requite y'all a adventure to correct the situation within a specific fourth dimension period. If you exercise not answer within that time, you volition have to file a new application (forth with another fee).

Annotation: If y'all do not notify the Registrar of a change of accost, the Registrar is not responsible for any correspondence that y'all or your agent practice not receive.

Communicating with the Function of the Registrar of Trademarks

Business with the Office of the Registrar of Trademarks is unremarkably done in writing. All newspaper correspondence should exist addressed to:

Office of the Registrar of Trademarks
Canadian Intellectual Belongings Office
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
Identify du Portage I
l Victoria Street, Room C114
Gatineau QC K1A 0C9

Fax: 819-953-CIPO (2476)

Correspondence most opposition or summary expungement (section 45 of the Trademarks Act) must be clearly marked "Attending Opposition Board" or "Attending: Section 45 Proceedings", depending on the contents of the letter of the alphabet, and addressed to:

Trademarks Opposition Board
Canadian Intellectual Property Office
Innovation, Science and Economical Development Canada
Identify du Portage I
fifty Victoria Street
Gatineau QC K1A 0C9

Fax: 819-953-CIPO (2476)

For more information, please consult CIPO'southward correspondence procedures.

If you are asking nigh the status of your application and it has not nevertheless been given to an examiner, you should contact the Customer Service Heart. If your application has been given to an examiner, please apply the contact number on the study sent to you past that examiner.

The Registrar will reply to all questions, but cannot:

search the Canadian Trademarks Database for yous
submit documents for registering transfers of ownership
give you legal advice, other than telling you well-nigh the Trademarks Act, the Trademarks Regulations, and other information that you can get on our website

To find out the status of active opposition or summary expungement files, delight see the Canadian Trademarks Database.

Electronic services

You can use our electronic services to:

file a trademark application
file an amended trademark awarding
group the goods and services of a registration according to the classes of the Prissy Classification system
renew a trademark registration
request copies of trademark documents

You lot can utilize the TMOB's online web awarding to:

Opposition proceedings

file a statement of opposition
file a counter argument
submit the opponent'due south evidence, or statement
submit the bidder's evidence, or statement
submit the opponent's reply evidence
submit the opponent's written representations, or argument
submit the bidder's written representations, or statement
request a hearing
request an extension of fourth dimension

Section 45 proceedings

request a section 45 notice
submit the registered owner'due south prove, or statement
submit the requesting party'south written representations, or statement
submit the registered owner'southward written representations, or statement
request a hearing
request an extension of fourth dimension

3. Registering a trademark outside Canada

Registering your trademark with the Registrar protects your rights in Canada only. If yous wish to market goods or services in other countries, y'all should call up about getting trademark registration(s) there equally well. For more information, please refer to the International Trademarks under the Madrid Protocol or contact a trademark agent.

4. Expungement of a trademark registration

When someone registers a trademark, they gain a very valuable correct. Withal, they tin lose that right (expungement, or removal, from the Register of Trademarks) unless they carry out specific responsibilities. A trademark registration can be expunged for several reasons, including: the trademark losing its distinctiveness, abandonment of the trademark, and non-utilise of the trademark.

Please contact CIPO's Client Service Heart if you demand more information.

5. Renewal fee

To maintain your trademark registration, yous are required to pay a renewal fee every 10 years. If you lot do not, your trademark will be expunged from the Register of Trademarks. The Registrar will send you a find with information about your payment deadline.

6. Utilise in Canada (section 45 proceedings)

Another of your responsibilities as the owner of a trademark is to use the trademark in Canada. If you practice not apply it, the registration could be expunged from the Register of Trademarks by the Registrar. The Registrar could start summary expungement proceedings, after 3 years beginning on the day on which a trademark is registered, either on their ain at whatsoever time during the life of the registration, or if another party pays the proper fee and asks them to.

The process begins when the Registrar sends a discover to the registered possessor asking them to provide bear witness showing that the trademark has been used in Canada during the concluding three years or to prove that in that location are special circumstances that alibi the fact that the trademark has not been used. If the possessor fails to reply to the Registrar, the trademark is liable to be expunged from the Register of Trademarks.

Once the Registrar has received the requested evidence, the owner and the other party tin can transport in written arguments and too announced at an oral hearing. After the Registrar has made a last decision to expunge, meliorate or maintain the registration, the possessor or other party tin can appeal to the Federal Court of Canada.

The process we have outlined hither is complex. We recommend that you utilise a registered trademarks agent to assist you through it.

For more information, visit our web page on section 45 proceedings or contact u.s..

7. Transfers

A trademark is a course of holding. You lot can sell, bequeath or transfer your rights to someone else through an assignment. To avoid ownership disagreements, you lot should formally tell the Registrar about changes in ownership.

You should as well tell the Registrar most annihilation else that affects the ownership a trademark, such as a alter of proper noun or a business merger.

viii. Marking requirements

There is no legal requirement to mark your trademark with any particular symbol. However, many owners employ the following symbols to show that their trademark is registered:

R (registered)
TM (trademark)
SM (service mark)
MC (marque de commerce)

9. Policing your trademark

It is up to you to make sure nobody is using your trademark without your permission and to take action if someone does. You may wish to take activity if you come across a trademark or a trade name that could be confused with your registered trademark, every bit you practice non want anyone imitating your trademark.

There is a good reason for this, beyond just the fake. If your business concern is successful and someone imitates your trademark, it may be in danger of becoming a generic term. For example, if consumers beginning proverb "North Pole" when they mean any water ice cream, in the aforementioned way that the trademark "zipper" is now what nearly everyone says when they hateful "slide fastener", the rights in your trademark may no longer exist enforceable.

10. Mutual errors

Before you file your trademark application, take some fourth dimension to go through the following checklist. The fewer errors yous make, the more quickly your application will go through.

Fee

Remember that each application must be accompanied by an application fee (non-refundable).

Notation: Yous tin can pay by credit card (VISA, MasterCard, or American Express), directly payment, postal money order or cheque (the postal money order or check must be made payable, in Canadian dollars, to the Receiver General for Canada). Do non add federal and provincial taxes.

Goods or services

You may not use a trademark registered past someone else to describe your goods or services. Many registered trademarks have become part of everyday linguistic communication, just you cannot use them to describe your goods or services. A few examples are "yo-yo," "bubble wrap," and "kleenex".

Brand sure that you include all the goods or services with which you plan to use, or have used, your trademark, and that they are grouped co-ordinate to the classes of the Nice Nomenclature. You may not aggrandize the scope of goods or services after you have filed the application.

The Trademarks Act states that the clarification of the goods or services y'all are applying for must be in specific and ordinary commercial terms. In other words, your application should use mutual names for the goods and services and use wording that is equally complete and as specific equally possible (due east.chiliad., shirts, bread, sofas, etc.). To help you with this, the Goods and Services Manual list adequate wording for many appurtenances and services. Information technology also gives guidelines for how to identify goods and services not listed.

11. Instance of a trademark awarding

To the Registrar of Trademarks, Gatineau, Canada.

The applicant, DEF Inc., whose total post office address of its chief office or identify of business is 456 Number Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, D4E 5F6, applies for the registration of the trademark identified beneath.

The trademark is a design, the representation of which is shown beneath:

Representation of a trademark design

Statement of appurtenances and services

Class 25

Blouses, sweaters, pants, skirts, socks, underwear and pyjamas.

Class 35

Operation of an online retail vesture store; performance of an online retail jewellery store.

Boosted Information

Websites of interest

The following are a few websites you may discover helpful.

General involvement

Innovation, Scientific discipline and Economic Development Canada

The Canadian Intellectual Holding Office, which includes the Trademarks Office, is a special operating agency of Innovation, Science and Economic Evolution Canada.

Corporations Canada

Helps Canadians contain, maintain and operate businesses, not-for-turn a profit corporations, and other corporate entities.

Canada Business Network

This is a single access point for federal and provincial/territorial authorities services, programs and regulatory requirements for businesses.

Plant Breeders' Rights Office (Canadian Food Inspection Agency)

This office oversees the Plant Breeders' Rights Act and Plant Breeders' Rights Regulations, which protect the legal right of constitute breeders for their new plant varieties.

Intellectual holding

Intellectual property

Canadian Trademarks Database

This is a searchable database of all active and inactive trademark applications and registrations in Canada. Information technology likewise shows the status of all active opposition and summary expungement (section 45) cases.

Trademarks Opposition Board

Oversees and provides data about trademark opposition and summary expungement proceedings (section 45 proceedings) in Canada.

WIPO Intellectual Property Digital Library

Provides access to intellectual property data collections hosted by the Earth Intellectual Property System (WIPO).

United States Patent and Trademark Office—English content but

Processes patent and trademark applications and provides information, resource and services for trademarks and their registration in the Usa of America.

Related acts and case law

Precious Metals Mark Act

Sets out the rules for using quality marks for precious metals. This helps prevent the registration of trademarks that may be misread as quality marks.

Bank Act

Regulates Canada's chartered banks, and restricts the use of the term "banking services" in lodge to prevent unauthorized utilize of this term.

Canada Post Corporation Human action

Regulates mail service in Canada and prohibits unauthorized use of words such as "postal service", "letter of the alphabet", and "postal service" and the unauthorized sale of postage stamps.

Federal Court of Canada

Provides a searchable database of all decisions fabricated by the judges of the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal.

Supreme Court of Canada

Provides a searchable database of all decisions made by the Supreme Court of Canada.