What's In A Name? Canada May Have Just Made It More Difficult To Register Name And Surname Marks

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has recently revised its Practice Notice regarding name and surname objections. The revised Practice Notice can be found here.  

Paragraph 12(1)(a) of the Trademarks Act stipulates that a trademark is registrable if it is not a word that is primarily merely the name or the surname of an individual who is living or who has died within the preceding thirty years. Canadian courts have established the following two-part test to determine the registrability of a trademark under paragraph 12(1)(a):

1. Is the trademark the name or surname of a living individual or an individual who has died in the preceding thirty years?
2. If the answer to the first question is affirmative, then the Registrar must determine if, in the mind of the average Canadian consumer, the trademark is “primarily merely” a name or surname, rather than something else.