Trademarks Office Issues New Practice Notice For Place Of Origin Objections

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has issued a new Practice Notice to clarify Trademarks Office practice as it pertains to objections in examination raised under paragraph 12(1)(b) of the Trade-marks Act (the "Act") to geographical names.  The new Practice Notice follows on the heels of, and aligns Trademarks Office examination practice with, the Federal Court of Appeal decision earlier this year in MC Imports Inc. v. AFOD Ltd. 2016 FCA 60. 

As background, paragraph 12(1)(b) of the Act provides that a mark is registrable if it is not clearly descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive of the place of origin of the goods or services in association with which it is used or proposed to be used.  Prior to the Federal Court of Appeal's decision, the case law was not entirely settled as to whether the appropriate test for determining if a mark was clearly descriptive of a place of origin should take into account the perspective of the ordinary consumer or not.