On June 28th the Canadian government published the new Industrial Design Regulations which are expected to come into force on November 5, 2018. These new regulations are to help modernize the industrial design process and bring it into agreement with the Hague Agreement.

~Friday, June 29, 2018~

• • • • • • • • • •

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has recently announced changes to its Industrial Design practices to modernize and improve client services and administration.

The six changes include the following:
– Computer-generated animated designs will be considered as one design
– Colour is now a feature that can be registered
– The time to respond to an Office Action has been reduced to three months
– The priority claim date will now be used to search originality
– Notices will now be issued for possible refusal
– Application registration now has the potential to be delayed up to six months from allowance

Please see CIPO’s fact sheet for an overview of the changes.

~Monday, January 23, 2017~

• • • • • • • • • •

At the recent Annual Meeting for the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, on October 16th,  Johanne Bélisle, CIPO’s Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trademarks, and Chief Executive Officer, commented that the implementation date for the changes from the Hauge Agreement are now expected to come into effect in the fall of 2017, instead of late 2015/early 2016 as initially expected.

~Monday, October 26, 2015~

• • • • • • • • • •

On  April 21, 2015 the Canadian Government released the federal budget plan for 2015. This budget proposes to amend Canada’s Patent Act, Trademark Act, Industrial Design Act, and Copyright Act in order to be more current with international intellectual property trends, particularly those of the other common law countries (Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom). The Government states: “Economic Action Plan 2015 proposes to further modernize Canada’s intellectual property framework to keep pace with internationally recognized best practices” (Economic Action Plan 2015, Page 113). These amendments will influence communication between agents and their clients. As well, one of the proposed changes is to be able to extend deadlines in the event of majeure events such as floods and ice storms, like the major ice storm that hit eastern Ontario and western Quebec in 1998. These will be welcome changes.

~Monday, April 27, 2015~

• • • • • • • • • •

The anticipated date for the proposed amendments to the Industrial Design Act to come into effect is now later than previously anticipated.  CIPO notes: “Interested stakeholders will also have the opportunity to comment when the proposed amendments/regulations are pre-published in Canada Gazette, Part 1 (expected late 2016)”.  The earliest the changes to the act and rules come into effect would typically be 2 months after publication in the Canada Gazette. For more information please see the CIPO website.

~Friday, April 24, 2015~

• • • • • • • • • •

Bill C-43, which puts forth amendments to the Patent Act and the Industrial Design Act, was granted royal assent yesterday. CIPO comments: “The amendments will allow Canada to ratify the Patent Law Treaty and to accede to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement.” For more information, please visit the CIPO website.

~Wednesday, December 17, 2014~

• • • • • • • • • •

On Thursday, Bill C-43 was introduced that amends the Industrial Design Act in order to make it consistent with the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement, in regards to the International Registration of Industrial Designs. The Governor in Council was provided the authority to make the necessary regulations for its effect. The amendments made include: “provisions relating to the contents of an application for the registration of a design, requests for priority, and the term of an exclusive right for a design” being the later of 15 years from the filing date or 10 years from the date or registration.

For more information click here.

~Monday, October 27, 2014~