Canadian Government Proposes Major Changes To "Trade-Marks Act"

The Federal government of Canada recently proposed major new changes to the Trade-marks Act—including changing the name of the Act to the Trademarks Act. The amendments, if passed, will be the biggest changes to the Act since 1953.

The amendments were quietly included in an omnibus budget implementation act dubbed the "Economic Action Plan 2014". This means that the amendments will likely sail through Parliament with little debate or public consultation.

Among the major changes are the elimination of the "use" requirement for trade-mark applications and the adoption of the Nice Classification system. In addition, there are also various changes to terminology, the government registrar will be granted increased powers to correct administrative errors, and the term of trademark registration has been reduced to 10 years (down from 15).