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).
I’ll begin at the end since some readers may be more interested in the results than a discussion of the underlying details (click to enlarge the image).
As of 21 June 2021, CIPO has received 36,647 inbound Madrid applications. Another 108,664 non-Madrid (i.e. national) applications have been filed since CIF. The current status of any one of those 145,311 applications can be checked via CIPO’s online trademark database. However, to see the overall status of all of those applications collectively—as above—you need to work with CIPO’s trademark .xml data.
As explained in my post about The Data, CIPO publishes a new .xml file for every newly filed application, including both Madrid and non-Madrid applications. Moreover, if any step is taken by or on behalf of the mark owner, or by CIPO, or by WIPO (in the case of Madrid applications), or by an interested party (e.g. an opponent, a section 45 requester, etc.) in relation to any application or registration, CIPO republishes the .xml file for that application or registration to reflect that step (i.e. event).
CIPO’s XML data is richly detailed. That's no exaggeration: see CIPO’s 132-page Trademarks Data Dictionary and its 16 appendices to get an idea of the level of detail1. The XML data can be processed to construct a database containing all or any selected portion of the details in each .xml file, as explained in my Working with trademark XML data (XML shredding) post. A properly constructed database can be data-mined to derive useful business intelligence.
To derive a status summary as tabulated above the database must contain status information extracted from the most recent version of each one of the 145,311 .xml files corresponding to the aforementioned 145,311 applications. CIPO encapsulates status information within the <tmk:MarkCurrentStatusInternalDescriptionText> element in each .xml file. For example, within the most recent version of CIPO’s .xml file for application no. 1981635 that element looks like this:
CIPO exposes the information encapsulated within the
<tmk:MarkCurrentStatusInternalDescriptionText> element on the online trademark database, for example as seen on the right in the red-highlighted portion of the online database entry partial extract for application no. 1981635 (click to enlarge the image).
The
<tmk:MarkCurrentStatusInternalDescriptionText> element encapsulates
CIPO’s description of the mark's current status.
WIPO uses different status descriptors, but CIPO provides those as well within each .xml file via the
<tmk:MarkCurrentStatusCode> element. For example, within the most recent version of CIPO’s .xml file for application no. 1981635 the
<tmk:MarkCurrentStatusCode> element looks like this:
The
<tmk:MarkCurrentStatusCode> element is one of the many elements that CIPO does
not expose via the online trademark database. One must work with CIPO’s trademark .xml data to obtain WIPO’s status information.
The Data Dictionary’s Appendix K lists all of the CIPO status descriptors that may be found encapsulated within the <tmk:MarkCurrentStatusInternalDescriptionText> element, together with useful supplemental information. For example, the Appendix K entry for CIPO’s “Inactivated” status descriptor provides:
Currently, any one of 44 different CIPO status descriptors may be encapsulated within the <tmk:MarkCurrentStatusInternalDescriptionText> element; whereas any one of 17 different WIPO status descriptors may be encapsulated within the <tmk:MarkCurrentStatusCode> element. CIPO’s descriptors are accordingly more granular than WIPO’s descriptors. This can be seen by comparing CIPO’s descriptors in the left column of the above table with WIPO’s corresponding descriptors in the right column. For example, CIPO provides 3 different descriptors (“Formalized”, “Searched”, “Default - Searched”) which map to a single corresponding WIPO descriptor (“Filing date accorded”). Data Dictionary Appendix A provides an index, mapping each one of CIPO’s status descriptors to a corresponding one of WIPO’s status descriptors and vice versa.
Why does the CIPO status descriptor “Advertised” occur twice in the left column of the above table? The first occurrence—corresponding to the right column WIPO descriptor “Application published”—pertains to trademark applications which are published for opposition in the Trademarks Journal. The second occurrence—corresponding to the right column WIPO descriptor “Registration published”—pertains to so-called Prohibited/Official Marks which are not subject to opposition; advertisement in the Trademarks Journal is the final protective step for such marks. The first “Advertised” row shows that 1,340 inbound Madrid applications and 387 non-Madrid applications filed since CIF have been published for opposition. The second “Advertised” row shows zero in the Madrid Cases column since the Madrid route does not apply to Prohibited/Official Marks. That second row shows 1,175 in the non-Madrid Cases column, corresponding to the fact that 1,175 of the 1,579 Prohibited/Official Mark applications filed since CIF have been published in the Trademarks Journal.
