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ARTICLE · 12 JANUARY 2016

How The Grinch Stole "Season's Greetings"

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It is now, it would seem, a violation of Canadian trademark law for businesses to send holiday cards with the message "Season's Greetings".

CanadaIntellectual Property
Jonathan Burkinshaw
Jonathan Burkinshaw
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It is now, it would seem, a violation of Canadian trademark law for businesses to send holiday cards with the message "Season's Greetings". The Canadian Trademarks Office today gave notice that "Season's Greetings" has been adopted and used as an official mark by the Western Canada Lottery Corporation. This means that "Season's Greetings" is a prohibited mark in Canada, and specifically that, according to Section 9 of the Trade-marks Act, it is prohibited for anyone to "adopt in connection with a business", whether as a trademark or not, any mark consisting of or likely to be mistaken for the phrase "Season's Greetings". In theory, a business distributing holiday cards with this message could run afoul of this prohibition. 

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