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ARTICLE · 30 MARCH 2012

CIPO Comes Roaring Into The Present: Sound Marks Are Now Registrable

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The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) announced yesterday that, effective immediately, applications for the registration of trademarks consisting of sounds will be accepted.

CanadaIntellectual Property
Jonathan Burkinshaw
Jonathan Burkinshaw
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The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) announced yesterday that, effective immediately, applications for the registration of trademarks consisting of sounds will be accepted. This announcement signals the reversal of long-standing CIPO policy and follows the recent order of the Federal Court in an appeal of CIPO's decision to refuse an application filed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Lion Corp (MGM) to register its "Roaring Lion" sound mark. The Court's order, made with CIPO's consent, set aside CIPO's refusal and directed MGM to provide CIPO with a digital recording of the mark.

The application for the Roaring Lion sound mark (No. 714314) was advertised for opposition yesterday, and a recording of the sound mark can be accessed through a special section of the CIPO Trade-marks Database (a link to which is currently on the Database's home page). However, the Database cannot currently be searched for sound marks.

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