Canada’s Trade-marks Act is about to undergo a major transformation, and the nation’s trademark lawyers are furious. Yes, even Canadians, noted for being unusually nice and polite, can be pushed too far. And this time it’s their own government doing the pushing.
“The Canadian government has introduced the most revolutionary changes to Canadian trademark law since the federal statute was written in 1868, hoping no one would notice,” says Daniel Bereskin, a name partner based in the Toronto office of Bereskin & Parr, one of the largest intellectual property law firms in Canada. “But we did notice—and it’s not pretty.”
