Proposed Changes To Canada’s Trade-mark Act

The Canadian federal government introduced significant proposed changes to Canada's Trade-marks Act and, to a lesser extent, its Copyright Act through Bill C-56, which had its first legislative reading on March 1, 2013. 

The legislation seeks to add new civil and criminal remedies as well as new border measures in both Acts in order to strengthen the enforcement of copyright and trade-mark rights, and to curtail commercial activity involving infringing copies and counterfeit goods.

In particular, both Acts will be amended to permit border officials to detain goods suspected of infringing any trade-mark or copyright, and provide for related enforcement proceedings and remedies. In a similar vein, Bill C-56 seeks to add criminal offences and remedies to the Trade-marks Act directed at counterfeits similar to those that already exist in the Copyright Act. In this regard, offences are proposed regarding the manufacturing, sale, possession, importation and distribution