Trade Mark Canada

Trade marks are part of the Intellectual Property family but differ from the well known patent in many ways. 

Trade marks are word(s), symbols, a design or any combination of these used to distinguish goods or services. The three types of Trade marks include:

• Ordinary Mark - consisting of words and/or designs
• Certification Mark - used to identify a standard of quality (ISO 9001)
• Distinguishing Guise - consisting of shaping of goods or packaging

TRADE NAME VS TRADE MARK

A Trade Name is a business’s name and can be registered as a TM only if it is used as a TM also. For example the products must be associated with the goods and not another name. It must be ABC’s ice cream if the business’s name is ABC and cannot be North Pole ice cream even though the company is still ABC. In other words the TM associated with products may be used as a business name.

TRADE MARK REGISTRATION

Registration of a TM gives exclusive protection in CAN for 15 years, then renewable every 15 years after (UPDATE: to better reflect the international community protection in Canada is for 10 years, then renewable every 10 years after). However, using a mark for a certain length of time can establish ownership via common law in CAN. Therefore one must search for TMs and trade names also before registering a TM as that party with the trade name can claim prior use.

If you do not use a TM for an extended period the TM may be removed from the Register of TMs.

ELIGIBILITY OF CANADIAN TRADE MARKS

Can you trade mark the dance int he video below, even though that language is prolific throughout.  Ahhhhh, NO :)  Don't watch the complete video - it will definitely drive you nuts. 

The Canadian Trade-Mark Act does not require any sort of the commonly used indicators such as: R, TM, SM, MC. There are special rules for stamps on precious metals such as registering a stamp of “10K Gold”.

Word Mark – a TM that is a word in standard character without any consideration for color or font type.