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ARTICLE · 16 JULY 2012

The Importance Of Searching For Common Law Trade-Marks

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A recent decision of the Federal Court emphasizes the importance of carrying out a full trade-mark search that includes common law references before making decisions concerning the availability of a trade-mark.

CanadaIntellectual Property
John McKeown
John McKeown
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A recent decision of the Federal Court emphasizes the importance of carrying out a full trade-mark search that includes common law references before making decisions concerning the availability of a trade-mark.

The Facts

Precision Door

Precision Door and Gate Service Ltd. ("Precision Door") has been selling, installing and repairing various kinds of doors throughout the lower mainland of British Columbia since 1997. It uses as a trade-mark a stylized version of its corporate name, as reproduced below.

Precision Door did not initially obtain a Canadian trade-mark registration.

Precision Holdings

Precision Holdings of Brevard, Inc., based in Titusville, Florida ("Precision Holdings"), sells and services garage doors through more than 70 franchisees. In 2002, it applied for the trade-marks PRECISION, PRECISION DOOR SERVICE and PRECISION OVERHEAD GARAGE DOOR SERVICE & Design. At this time, it was unaware of the business of Precision Door. Presumably,

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