As reported in our
Alert of April 1, 2014, the Canadian government has been moving
quickly to make amendments to the Trademarks Act.
Bill C-31, the omnibus budget implementation bill, which
includes significant and several controversial changes to the
trademarks regime in Canada, passed Third Reading in the Senate on
June 18, 2014, and has now received Royal Assent.
Three key changes to note are:
- there will be no need to confirm use in Canada prior to
registration. Registrations will issue once the period for
oppositions has passed, without the need to file a Declaration of
Use or a specimen of use. Neither applicants nor registrants are
required under the Act to indicate a date of first use. We
understand that regulations implementing the Act may
ultimately incorporate the requirement to provide a first use date,
but it is unclear at what stage that information would be provided,
and applicants will nevertheless be able to obtain registrations
without use
