Yesterday, the Parliament of Canada completed the final steps to pass Bill C-31, the somewhat cryptically-named Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures, or Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, No. 1 for short.
 
In addition to amending several Canadian laws, this bill introduced some sweeping changes to the Trade-marks Act (now the un-hyphenated "Trademarks Act"), including the ratification of the Singapore, Madrid and Nice treaties. The bill also includes several important structural changes to the Canadian trademark regime, such as removing the requirement at the time of filing to otherwise identify whether the mark has been used or is proposed to be used, removing the requirement for use of a mark in Canada before registration, introducing divisional applications and permitting the Registrar to object to applications as non-distinctive during examination.
 
While Bill C-31 received both Third Reading and Royal Assent on June 19, 2014, its provisions will come into force over the next few months, with most of the provisions expected to be fully implemented by January 1, 2015. A more detailed analysis of the what Bill C-31 means for Canadian trademark practice will follow in a future release. In the meantime, please contact the authors for any questions in relation to the new law.

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