Legal Trends 2016: Intellectual Property

ONE | LEGISLATIVE CHANGES

The previous federal government committed Canada to sweeping changes to the legislation and regulations governing virtually every category of intellectual property in the country. Some of these changes have largely already taken effect. These include amendments to the Copyright Act and Trade-marks Act to introduce customs enforcement measures against counterfeit goods. Other changes, such as the introduction of privilege for certain communications between clients and their patent agents and trade-mark agents, will come into force on a date that has been fixed. Still, other changes, such as those relating to Canada's adherence to the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs and its adherence to the Madrid Protocol, have been enacted, but no date has been fixed for when they will take effect. They await finalization of treaty adherence, the introduction of regulations and changes to the infrastructure of