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ARTICLE · 19 DECEMBER 2024

Clearing The Deadwood: Inactive Trademarks At Risk As Section 45 Pilot Project Announced

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On December 12, 2024, the Canadian Trademarks Opposition Board (TMOB) announced plans to initiate a pilot project in January 2025 whereby the Registrar of Trademarks...

CanadaIntellectual Property
Bennett Jones LLP
Bennett Jones LLP
J. Sébastien Gittens
J. Sébastien Gittens
Emily Kettel
Emily Kettel
Kees De Ridder
Kees De Ridder
David Wainer
David Wainer
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On December 12, 2024, the Canadian Trademarks Opposition Board (TMOB) announced plans to initiate a pilot project in January 2025 whereby the Registrar of Trademarks will proactively issue a limited number of section 45 notices against existing trademark registrations with the primary intent to assess how many of these trademarks are no longer in use.

At this stage, the registrations to receive these notices will be randomly selected from those that have been registered for more than three years. It is anticipated that one hundred section 45 notices will issue in January 2025, followed by fifty notices in each of February and March, 2025. The project will subsequently be reevaluated by the TMOB to determine if it will continue.

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