I recently had the pleasure of presenting a summary of pending
changes to Canada's Trade-marks Act under the enormous omnibus
bill C-31, part of the federal government's "economic
action plan".
The government's own summary to the Bill describes it as
implementing the Singapore Treaty, the Madrid Protocol, simplifying
filing requirements, eliminating the need for a declaration of use,
reducing the term of registration to 10 years, and adopting Nice
Classification.
Here are the key points I
covered:
1. Hyphen
slashed! Trade-mark becomes
"trademark".
2. Wares
replaced with goods.
3.
Signs: Trademark definition expanded with reference
to "signs", to permit registration of broader array of
marks including [open ended]: word, a personal name, a design, a
letter, a numeral, a colour, a figurative element, a
three-dimensional shape, a hologram, a moving image, a mode of
packaging goods, a sound, a scent, a taste, a texture and the
positioning
