Combating Counterfeit Products Act Introduced In Canada

On March 1, 2013, the Canadian Government introduced Bill C-56, An Act to amend the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. The short title of the proposed legislation is "Combating Counterfeit Products Act" and the bill introduces long overdue amendments to the Copyright Act ("CA") and Trade-marks Act ("TMA") to add improved border measures and clear prohibitions to address the proliferation of counterfeit and pirated products in Canada. The bill also includes provisions dealing with significant trade-mark issues, including expanding the definition of "trade-mark" to cover non-traditional trade-marks, allowing proposed use certification mark applications and divisional applications, and other improvements.