Privilege For Patent And Trademark Agents Now In Force In Canada

By virtue of amendments to the Canadian Patent Act and Trademarks Act introduced in Bill C-59 (An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 21, 2015 and other measures), which received royal assent on June 23, 2015, statutory privilege between Canadian patent and trademark agents and their clients comes into force as of June 24, 2016. 

Specifically, Bill C-59 has added section 16.1 to the Patent Act and section 51.13 to the Trademarks Act, which provide that a communication is privileged in the same way as a communication that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, and that no person shall be required to disclose, or give testimony on, the communication in a civil, criminal or administrative action or proceeding, provided that the communication meets certain conditions.  These conditions require the communication to be: