Trade-Marks Guide - Glossary (page 15 of 15)
A Guide to Trade-marks (PDF - 2.91 MB - 42 pages)
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A
- Abandonment
- An application for trade-mark registration may be considered abandoned if the applicant does not complete all steps in the application process.
- Advertisement
- Publication of a trade-mark application in the Trade-marks Journal. Details are published in order to allow opportunity for opposition (challenges) to the application.
- Allowance
- Acknowledgement by the Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks that an application is eligible for registration. The applicant receives a “Notice of Allowance”.
- Assignment (please see also Transfer)
- Transfer of trade-mark rights from the owner to another party.
C
- Certificate of registration
- Official document acknowledging that a trade-mark has been recorded in the Register of Trade-marks.
- Certification mark
- Mark identifying goods or services meeting a defined standard, e.g., the Woolmark design used on clothing.
- Clearly descriptive mark
- A word that describes an inherent feature of a product or service and therefore is not registrable as a trade-mark or part of a trade-mark.
- Copyright
- Provides protection for literary, artistic, dramatic, or musical works (including computer programs), as well as three other subject matter: performances; sound recordings; and communication signals.
- Corporate name
- The name registered by a legal organization for the purpose of carrying on business. A corporate name can also be a trade-mark.
D
- Deceptively misdescriptive mark
- A word that may not be registered as a trade-mark or part of a trade-mark because it is misleading.
- Disclaimer
- A statement to the effect that the applicant does not have exclusive rights to a given word or to a portion of a trade-mark.
- Distinguishing guise
- The shaping of goods or their containers, or a mode of wrapping or packaging goods, which results in a distinctive appearance and thus distinguishes them from others in the marketplace.
E
- Examination
- The process through which the Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks determines whether an application for trade-mark may proceed to registration.
- Expungement
- The removal of a trade-mark from the Register of Trade-marks.
F
- Fee
- A specific sum payable to the Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks for a given service.
- Filing date
- The date on which a completed application is filed with the Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks (this is different from the date on which a trade-mark is registered in the Register of Trade-marks).
G
- Goods (please see also Products and Wares)
- Any articles that would normally be the subject of trade, i.e., sold, leased, or otherwise distributed in the marketplace.
I
- Incorporation
- The act of establishing a corporation under the law by filing the required documents.
- Industrial design
- The visual features of shape, configuration, pattern, or ornament (or any combination of these features), applied to a finished article of manufacture.
- Infringement (of a trade-mark)
- Violation of trade-mark rights through unauthorized use of a trade-mark.
- Integrated circuit topographies
- The three-dimensional configuration of the electronic circuits in integrated-circuit products or layout designs.
- Intellectual property
- A form of creative effort that can be protected through a trade-mark, patent, copyright, industrial design, or integrated-circuit topography.
L
- Licensee
- Individual or organization licensed by the owner of a trade-mark to use this trade-mark subject to specific terms and conditions. When an individual or organization is licensed by the owner, or with the authority of the owner, to use the mark, where the owner has direct or indirect control over the character or quality of the goods or services in respect of which the mark is used, then the licensee’s use of the mark or a trade-name including the mark is deemed to have, and to always have had, the same effect as use by the owner.
O
- Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks
- The federal agency responsible for administering the trade-marks process in Canada.
- Opposition
- The process followed when members of the public object to the granting of a trade-mark registration, where they have valid grounds for doing so (anyone filing an opposition must pay the applicable fee).
- Ordinary commercial terms
- The generic description customarily used in the trade to refer to specific goods or services.
P
- Patent
- A government grant giving the right to exclude others from making, using or selling an invention. A Canadian patent applies within Canada for 20 years from the date of filing of a patent application. The patent application is available to the public 18 months after filing.
- Plant breeders’ denomination
- A right granted to the owner for the control over the multiplication and sale of reproductive material in respect of a particular plant variety.
- Place of origin
- A word or depiction denoting the origin of a product or service.
- Preliminary search
- The search of Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks records one should carry out before filing an application for trade-mark registration.
- Pre-publication search
- A second search of Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks records to ensure that no trade-mark exists that could be confused with the one for which an application for registration is being made, before this application is advertised in the Trade-marks Journal.
- Prima facie evidence (direct evidence)
- Evidence legally sufficient to establish a fact or to raise a presumption of fact, unless rebutted.
- Products (please see also Goods and Wares)
- Any articles that would normally be the subject of trade, i.e., sold, leased, or otherwise distributed in the marketplace.
- Prohibited marks
- Marks specifically prohibited from use and which may not be registered under the law.
- Proposed use
- The use which an owner intends to make of a certain trade-mark and how that use will occur.
- Protected geographical indication
- An indication identifying that a wine or spirit originates from a given territory, whereby a specific quality, the reputation, or other characteristic of the wine or spirit is essentially attributable to its geographical origin, and where the wine or spirit is included in the List of Geographical Indications maintained by the Registrar of Trade-marks.
R
- Registration
- The inclusion of a trade-mark in the Register of Trade-marks, in accordance with the Trade-marks Act.
- Registered trade-mark
- A trade-mark entered in the federal government’s Register of Trade-marks; this formally recognizes the owner’s right to the mark.
- Register of Trade-marks (please see also Trade-marks Register)
- The official listing of registered trade-marks for Canada.
- Representative for service
- A person in Canada appointed by the applicant to receive notices and upon whom service of any proceedings in respect of the application may be given, with the same effect as if they had been given to, or served upon, the applicant.
S
- Services
- Any activity or intangible that benefits others which would normally be the subject of trade, i.e., performed or offered in the marketplace.
- Summary expungement (section 45 proceedings)
- The process followed when the Registrar issues a notice to a registered owner of a trade-mark asking him or her to provide evidence showing use of the trade-mark in Canada in the preceding three years (anyone requesting the issuance of such notice must pay the prescribed fee).
T
- Trade-mark
- A trade-mark is a word (or words), a design, or a combination of these, used to identify the goods or services of one person or organization and to distinguish these goods or services from those of others in the marketplace.
- Trade-mark agent
- A trade-mark agent is a person whose name is entered on the list of officially recognized trade-mark agents and who is therefore entitled to practice before the Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks.
- Trade-marks Act
- The federal legislation governing trade-mark registration in Canada.
- Trade-marks Examination Manual
- A guide explaining the statutory guidelines for examining trade-marks applications, which sets out the interpretation of provisions of the Trade-marks Act and the Trade-marks Regulations made by the courts; this guide is used primarily by trade-mark examiners for purposes of the examination process.
- Trade-marks Journal
- A weekly publication of the Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks containing all approved applications and all Office rulings.
- Trade-marks records
- The index of registered trade-marks and pending applications maintained electronically by the Office of the Registrar of Trade-marks.
- Trade-marks Register (please see also Register of Trade-marks)
- The official listing of registered trade-marks for Canada.
- Trade-marks Regulations
- Federal regulations made pursuant to section 65 of the Trade-marks Act for carrying into effect the purposes and provisions of the Act.
- Trade name
- The name under which a business or individual chooses to operate. Trade names may also be considered trade-marks, under certain conditions.
- Transfer (please see also Assignment)
- An act by which the rights in respect of a trade-mark are conveyed from one person or organization to another.
W
- Wares (please see also Goods and Products)
- Any articles that would normally be the subject of trade, i.e., sold, leased, or otherwise distributed in the marketplace.
- Wares and Services Manual
- A guide used for specifying goods and services in trade-mark applications pursuant to paragraph 30(a) of the Trade-marks Act.
- Word mark
- A trade-mark consisting of words in standard character, without regard to colour or font type.