Facelift for trademark oppositions?: Canada's proposed amendments

01-12-2010

Dr. Victoria Carrington and Nihan Keser

CIPO recently announced proposed amendments to the Trademarks Regulations in anticipation of both reducing the operational costs for businesses and increasing the overall effectiveness of trademark opposition procedures.

These proposed changes reflect Canada’s efforts to modernise and streamline its trademark opposition regime. The aim is also to keep up with international standards and trading partners, such as the European Union and Australia, which are also considering ways to improve and streamline their respective opposition regimes.

One of the key proposed amendments concerns filing electronic evidence. Given the increased use of electronically transmitted documents and the acceptability of filing electronically with other Canadian courts and tribunals, such delivery may be equally acceptable in opposition proceedings.

The proposed e-filing requirements would facilitate filing documents such as electronic sworn affidavits or solemn declarations, provided that they are consistent with the rules of the Federal Court of Canada and the practices of other Canadian tribunals.


CIPO, Trademark Regulations, amendments

WIPR