Major Changes To Canada's Trademark Laws To Come Into Force In June 2019

The Canadian government introduced in 2014 the first procedural step toward ratifying and implementing five intellectual property law treaties in order to align Canadian practice with that of most other countries in the world. The government has also introduced amendments to its existing intellectual property legislation, which have not yet come into force.

Amendments to the Trade-marks Act and related regulations will come into force on June 17, 2019. This action will coincide with Canada's accession to the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks (Singapore Treaty); the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (Madrid Protocol); and the Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Agreement).