The Canadian Trademark landscape has changed significantly over the last few years with a modernized trademarks regime. The challenges that have arisen since Canada’s 2019 accession to the Singapore Treaty, the Madrid Protocol, and the Nice Agreement, along with various input from stakeholders, have guided the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) in adopting new measures to accelerate the prosecution of trademark applications. With the time to the issuance of a first examination report reaching recently 24-30 months in the case of some national applications, these measures need to be carefully considered. Two new practice notices are intended to address delays in examination, namely:
- CIPO – PN: Measures to improve timeliness in examination
- CIPO – PN: Requests for expedited examination