Status Update 2-Years Post-CIF

This post examines the current status (as of 21 June 2021—CIPO’s most recent data refresh) of the applications CIPO has received since coming into force (CIF) of the 17 June 2019 amendments to the Trademarks Act, RSC 1985 c. T-13 (TMA).

Doubtful Cases

Section 37(3) of the Trademarks Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. T-13 (TMA) requires the Registrar to notify the owner of a registered trademark of the advertisement of a pending application if the Registrar “is in doubt whether the trademark claimed in the application is registrable” over the registered mark.  The idea is presumably that inter partes opposition proceedings between the registrant and applicant are better suited to resolving such doubt than ex parte examination proceedings.

Standardization Marks

What do the words Alice, Cinderella, Donald Duck, Dopey, Dumbo, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Seven Dwarfs and Snow White have in common, besides the fact that they are Disney characters?  Those words are all standardization marks originally protected pursuant to the Unfair Competition Act (1932) 22-23 George V c. 38; RSC 1952 c. 274.  They all remain on the current Canadian trademark register—in the standardization mark category—which may be unfamiliar to some practitioners.

Some Vienna Statistics

This post takes a brief look at some statistical metrics for CIPO’s Vienna Classifications data.