Publications

June 15, 2023

Team trademarks: naming the champions

Choosing the name of a sports team can be a perilous exercise. In addition to representing certain values, names are supposed to fire up the fan base and motivate the athletes themselves. It must sometimes meet with the approval of major sponsors. But when sports teams are companies seeking to (…)

February 2, 2023

TRADEMARKS IN CANADA: The Federal Court clarifies the concept of “bad faith”

In the decision Beijing Judian Restaurant Co. Ltd. v. Wei Meng, 2022 FC 743, rendered by the Honourable Angela Furlanetto on May 18, 2022, the Federal Court clarified what constitutes bad faith in trademark law. Prior to the decision, the concept of bad faith in relation to trademarks was (…)

September 7, 2022

Ten things you should know about the amendments to Quebec’s Charter of the French language

Quebec recently enacted Bill 96, entitled An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, which aims to overhaul the Charter of the French language. Here are 10 key changes in this law that will impose significant obligations on businesses: As of June 1, 2025, businesses (…)

May 9, 2022

Trademarks and Charter of the French language: What can you expect from Bill 96?

On May 13, 2021, the Quebec government introduced Bill 96 to amend the Charter of the French language (the “Charter”) to strengthen the provisions regarding the use of French, particularly with respect to the language of commerce and business. This bill has been thoroughly reviewed in parliamentary (…)

November 16, 2021

Entrepreneurs and Intellectual Property: Avoid these 13 mistakes to protect yourself (Part 3 of 3)

In the third and final entry of this three-part article series, we share with you the last set of intellectual property (IP)–related mistakes (mistakes #10 to #13) that we regularly see with startups. We hope you will find it useful for your business. Please be sure to read our first and second (…)

July 7, 2021

Entrepreneurs and Intellectual Property: Avoid These Thirteen Mistakes to Protect Yourself (Part 2 of 3)

In the second entry of this three-part article series, we share with you the next set of intellectual property (IP)–related mistakes (mistakes #6 to #9) that we regularly see with startups. We hope you will find it useful for your business. Please be sure to read our first entry in this series, (…)

May 10, 2021

Accelerated trademark examination – Canada

Good News from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office! CIPO is taking measures to allow expedited examination of trademark applications in the following cases: Upcoming or current court action in Canada; Combating counterfeit products at the Canadian border; Protecting intellectual property (…)

March 12, 2021

Studios and designers: How to protect the intellectual property of your video games?

Behind every video game, there is intellectual property (IP) which is worth protecting to optimize monetisation of the game. As discussed in Studios and designers: Are you sure that you own the intellectual property rights to your video games, the first step for studios and designers is to make sure (…)

December 17, 2020

The Court of Appeal Adds a Few More Shades to Canada’s Grey Market

In Canada, as elsewhere in the world, intellectual property owners have made numerous attempts to control their distribution channels through trademark law, copyright law, or exclusive contracts, without much success. However, in a recent decision (Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. c. Simms Sigal & (…)

May 21, 2020

E-commerce: Protecting Your Work

As distribution channels with a global reach, websites are a powerful tool for doing business, and during the pandemic, they even play a critical role. A website consists of a set of webpages accessible from an address hosted on a server through the internet or an intranet. A website is a (…)

July 31, 2019

New notification process at the Trademarks Office

The new provisions of the Trademarks Act allow for earlier intervention with the Registrar in an attempt to prevent the registration of trademarks that create confusion with registered or applied-for trademarks through a notification system. As the owner of pending or registered trademarks in (…)

June 3, 2019

Heffel Gallery Limited : The National Importance of Foreign Art in Canada

On April 16, 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal issued a judgment resolving a deadlock that had been plaguing the Canadian art community since June 12, 2018. Since June 2018, the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board (the “Board”) has had to take into consideration the Federal Court’s (…)

May 23, 2019

The countdown is on to protect your trademarks in Canada

A few weeks before the coming into force of the amendments to the Trade-marks Act, the following is a reminder of the actions you should consider taking before June 17, 2019 to protect your rights and save costs. Actions To Take Benefits Renew your registrations and classify your (…)