Aligning Canada's Trade-marks Regime with Modern Business Practices - 1 of 5
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- Introduction
- Background
- Updating Canada's Trade-marks Act
- The Madrid System of International Registration of Trade-marks
- The Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trade-marks
- Conclusion
Introduction
The maintenance of a modern and efficient trade-marks regime is an important element of a strong marketplace framework environment and can help enhance a country's overall competitiveness. Recently, countries such as the United States, Australia, the European Union and the United Kingdom have amended their trade-mark laws to respond to new business trends and to an increase in globalization. As a result, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is assessing Canada's trade-mark regime, with a specific focus on its responsiveness to new business practices and improved international standards
In particular, CIPO is seeking stakeholder views on whether to amend Canada's Trade-Marks Act so that it is more closely aligned with the intent and principles of international treaties such as the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (the Madrid Protocol) and the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks (the Singapore Treaty), both administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
CIPO undertook similar consultations in 2005. At that time, some respondents questioned the benefits to Canada of moving towards adopting the standards of these international treaties. Since that time, however, many of Canada's trading partners have joined one or both of the treaties. It is timely, therefore, to re-examine whether Canada should update its trade-mark legislation to put us on an even competitive footing with trading partners who have already done so.
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