IP Professionals to wait until 2018 for conformity with Nice, Madrid and Singapore

It would appear that trademark owners and practitioners across Canada will have to wait a little longer for the implementation of regulations to bring Canada’s Trade-marks Act in accordance with the Madrid Protocol, the Nice Agreement and the Singapore Treaty.

As many observers of the IP profession in Canada are well aware, the now-deposed Conservative government introduced widespread changes to Canada’s Trade-marks Act in a 2014 omnibus bill. These long-awaited changes are envisioned to bring Canadian trademark law in accordance with its obligations under the aforementioned international intellectual property agreements.

However, Ms. Johanne Bélisle, the Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trademarks and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), gave an address at the Annual Meeting of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) in October 2015 in which she gave an update on the changes. She suggested that the expected date for implementation of the Singapore Treaty and Madrid Protocol will be delayed until early 2018, as opposed to late 2015 or early 2016, which had been originally suggested by CIPO.

At this time, this information has not been officially confirmed nor communicated to the trademark profession by CIPO. However, it certainly suggests that the wait for Canada’s harmonization with the international trademark regime will unfortunately take longer than initially expected.

Stay tuned to Nelligan O’Brien Payne’s IP law blog at IP@Nelligan for further updates!