Bill C-56: Combating Counterfeit Products Act

Parliament has introduced a new bill ( Bill C-56) to amend the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act, to combat counterfeit products. The bill, if it becomes law, would add new civil and criminal remedies such as:

• opening up new rights to sue for damages for counterfeits and infringing activity;
• creating new criminal offences for trade-mark counterfeits (which would mirror those currently found in the Copyright Act);
• creating new criminal offences prohibiting the possession or export of infringing copies or counterfeit trade-marked goods, packaging or labels;
• grants new powers for enforcement of IP rights at the border (including detaining goods that are suspected of infringing copyright or trade-marks).