Update: Amendments to Canada's Trade-Mark Act

Update: Amendments to Canada's Trade-Mark Act

Yesterday the Canadian Intellectual Property Office posted a proposed new fee structure.  You can view it here: Proposed adjustments to the trademark and patent fees 

This is the long awaited first step towards implementation of the changes to our Trade-Mark Act.  The consultation period extends to July 5.

 

HIGHLIGHTS 

 

Fees

Application & Registration

There will be only one fee associated with the registration of a trademark.  At filing an applicant will pay $C330 ($C430 if not filed online).  This replaces the current application and registration fees ($C450).  

 

The basic filing fee will cover one Nice Class.  Each additional class will incur a further fee of $C100 per class.

 

Renewals 

The renewal fee will be $C400 ($C500 if not filed online).

The renewal fee will cover one Nice Class.  Each additional class will incur a further fee of $C125 per class.

Use 

The consultation paper affirms that there will no longer be a requirement for use of a trademark to obtain registration in Canada.  The paper acknowledges that with the abolishing of the requirement for a declaration of use, there will be many proposed use applications that "can now" be registered.

Furthermore, the paper clearly states that applications filed prior to the coming into force of the new regulations will be subject to the $200 registration fee (but presumably not the per class fee).  

Coming into Force

CIPO is now stating that the regulations implementing the new law will come into force in early 2018 and the paper confirms this in its revenues and costs estimations which start in fiscal year 2018‒19. 

MIND RAMBLES: ON EMAILS, SHARE BUTTONS & CASL

THE NEW AND IMPROVED SHARE BUTTON

Today I “attended” an email marketing webinar. It was put on by an email service provider – it facilitates email marketing. According to the presenter, 68% of Canadian consumers prefer emails as the way to receive brand information; only 5% want it via social media (what a shock, considering the source – haha).

The webinar started with a discussion of something called a Share Button which email marketers should put in all their emails to enable the email's recipients to share the email message.

Well that triggered my interest!

IS SHARING AN EMAIL SPAM?

You may remember being inundated (and likely annoyed) with “opt in” emails because of CASL (Canada's Anti Spam Legislation) which was all the rage last summer -- if you don't know about CASL you could read my post here. Since the legislation took effect, over 300,000 complaints of spam have been reported to the CRTC; over a quarter of which were about the same company. So far three companies have been fined. On a more positive note, spam originating from within Canada – not from overseas – has dropped 37% since July 2014. But I digress...

Was sharing a marketing email spam? Probably not; after all it's not on you if somebody else forwards your email to someone. But as it turned out, the Share Button only encouraged and enabled the recipient of the email to share to social media not actually forward the email so it cleverly avoids the whole issue.

CANADIAN CONSUMERS PREFER EMAILS TO SOCIAL MEDIA

But wait, I thought you said consumers wanted email not social media interaction. Another hour lost, sigh.

Anyway, the takeaway from this? Emails rule and using share buttons can increase your email lists. Well, according to an email service provider.

Off the Beaten Track -- Hiking in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, Canada

A few weeks ago, my husband and I hiked the North Rim and Long Range Traverses in Gros Morne National Park.

Gros Morne is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hikes took us along soaring fjords, Western Brook Pond and Ten Mile Gulch, up and down barren cliffs and through mountain meadows, bogs and forests.  We saw moose and caribou and picked bakeapples (a berry indigenous only to Newfoundland and Labrador).

It was extremely challenging; in fact you have to pass a “test”regarding orienteering skills (ie. can you read a map), accounting for declination and back-country safety.  

If anyone is thinking of doing this hike or looking for a challenge for next summer, you might want to check this out!

 For more pictures and commentary click here

Update: Amendments to Canada's Trade-Mark Act

A year after becoming law, CIPO has finally announced some real movement towards the implementation of our new Trademark law. Starting this fall, CIPO will be accepting trademark applications filed with their goods and services grouped and classed according to the Nice Classification of goods and services. 

In addition the online search capabilities will be enhanced to give the user the ability to search the database for marks filed within a particular class of goods and services.

Read the official announcement here:Coming soon: the Nice Classification

Update: Amendments to Canada's Trade-Mark Act

Well, it's been ten months since Bill C-31, Canada’s Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No.1, was tabled.   As you may recall, the Bill contains major amendments to the current trademark system, one of the most important of which is to eliminate use as a registration requirement.  It also allows for implementation of the Madrid Protocol and adoption of the Nice Classification of goods and services.  Of significance also, it reduces the renewal period to 10 years which seems to be of most interest to my clients.  

So, what progress has been made?   Not much really.  On June 19th, Bill C-31 received Royal Assent and is now the law in Canada.  The next day the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) released this document: Amendments to the Trade-marks Act: Questions and Answers

http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr03799.html?Open&wt_src=cipo-tm-main&wt_cxt=feature

However, the new Law needs Regulations in order to actually function and CIPO produced a discussion document in October outlining the proposed regulations for comments.  If you are so inclined, you can read that here, http://www.cipo.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr03851.html

The consultation period ended on November 30 and no doubt numerous responses were filed.  Further consultations on fees and set up procedures and costs for Madrid Protocol applications are expected. 

CIPO has also held a couple of webinars in order to explain their perspective, the latest of which made it quite clear that full implementation of the amendments will not happen before early 2016.  For now, the current registration regime will remain in force and it is business as usual at CIPO. 

Pharmacare in Canada: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

Canadians pay an average of 50% more per capita on prescription drugs

Despite what I do for a living, I won't claim to know anything about pharmaceuticals, their patents and the generic drug industry but I thought Canada's patent law supported generic drugs to make drugs cheaper for us. Apparently not, Canadians pay an average of 50% more per capita on prescription drugs than residents of other developed countries.

I'm pretty healthy, knock on wood, and basically never have to take prescription drugs. So this whole pharmacare “debate” going on right now in Canada comes as a bit of a shock to me. I mean, really, it seems like a no brainer: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

Medicines keep people healthy, help patients cope with difficult symptoms, avoid trips to the hospital and even save lives. They’re fundamental to modern health care. Apparently, about 40% of Canadians are engaged in “precarious employment” -- not enrolled in private drug plans, offered largely through the workplace. These folks, including myself, are left exposed to high prices for the medicines they need. Or they simply don't take them and end up in the hospital at the expense of the health-care system. 

Canada is the only country in the world that has a universal health-care system that doesn't cover the cost of prescription drugs

 

Apparently, Canada is the only country in the world that has a universal health-care system that doesn't cover the cost of prescription drugs.  As I understand it, publicly funded access to prescription drugs results in bulk buying power and this results in lower costs.

So what's the problem? Economist Bob Evans recently described the main obstacle for the implementation of universal pharmacare in Canada: “Anyone’s spending is somebody else’s income. Universal pharmacare could save billions to Canadians, so there are powerful corporate interests that will do everything they can to make sure it does not happen.” 

Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL)

Is your inbox suddenly flooded with emails asking "Do you wish to continue receiving ..."?

For my Canadian followers the answer is likely yes. And by now you are probably well aware that on July 1, 2014, Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL) will come into force. CASL Regulations require companies to have consent from their customers before they are allowed to send them electronic marketing communications. Since I don't do electronic marketing (other than this on and off blog gig which you all have to actively opt into to view) and no clients were asking for advise, I wasn't too concerned with this new law.

But then last week I noticed that I was getting a lot of "undeliverable mail" notices. I ignored them for awhile thinking it was just some glitch but then I finally looked at a response and saw that the sender was actually one of MY email accounts. So was I sending out spam? Probably. Was it electronic marketing from a business? Possibly. If I didn't put a stop to it by July 1, would I be exposed to liability? Panic!

I fixed the problem but I can't help but wonder if this new law will have any effect on this kind of thing. I kind of doubt it.