ARTICLE · 24 JANUARY 2020

What Is Bad Faith In A Trademark Context?

Goldman Sloan Nash & Haber LLP

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There have been several recent developments concerning "bad faith'" and it seems just a matter of time before we face this issue in Canada.

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There have been several recent developments concerning "bad faith'" and it seems just a matter of time before we face this issue in Canada.

When the Government implemented its 2018 intellectual property strategy, the Trademarks Act was amended to add bad faith as a ground for the invalidation of a trademark registration and as a ground of opposition.

The registration of a trademark is invalid if the application for registration was filed in bad faith. Similar considerations apply in the opposition of a trademark application. To date no Canadian decisions have considered "bad faith" under the amendments.

In Europe there have been several recent decisions which have considered "bad faith" allegations. There seems to be a definite trend.

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