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ARTICLE · 12 JUNE 2025

Trademarks En Français: Navigating Québec's Language Laws

On May 24, 2022, the National Assembly of Québec adopted Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec (Bill 96). Bill 96 aimed to protect and strengthen Québec's...

CanadaIntellectual Property

On May 24, 2022, the National Assembly of Québec adopted Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec (Bill 96). Bill 96 aimed to protect and strengthen Québec's cultural identity as a French-speaking province. On June 26, 2024, Québec published the Regulation to amend mainly the Regulation respecting the language of commerce and business (the Regulation), offering additional guidance and clarification. As an update to our 2022 article, further impacts of Bill 96 and the Regulation on trademarks in Québec are explained below.

Previous requirements

Previously, a non-French "recognized trademark" (i.e., a common law trademark, a registered trademark or a pending trademark, being a trademark for which an application for registration has been filed but registration has not yet been granted) was exempt from translation requirements, if there was no registered French version of the trademark. This applied to commercial advertising,

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