If you represent Drake's company, October's Very Own IP
Holdings (OVO), and you're opposing registration of the
trademark "6IX" by a local Toronto DJ, and you think
it'll be a slam dunk because Drake (the Raptors' global
ambassador) has been synonymous with the 6IX since the 2014
announcement of his original album title Views from the 6
— think again!
According to John Simpson, the lawyer representing Toronto DJ
Michael Di Cosmo, "Just because Drake is a big deal and
everyone thinks he's the 6IX, that doesn't mean the board
(or a court for that matter) will take judicial notice of that fact
— you still have to prove it."
And that is precisely what OVO set out to do, when it opposed Di
Cosmo's application to register the "6IX" mark for
both goods and DJ services before the Trademarks Opposition Board
of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO). CIPO released
its decision in December 2018.
