Trademark Requirements

In order for a trademark to be registered it must meet some basic criteria which are defined in the Trademarks Act and applied by the Trademarks Office upon the receipt of a trademark application.

A trademark is registerable if it is not:

(a) confusingly similar with a registered trademark;

(b) when depicted, written or sounded is either clearly descriptive or deceptively is mis-descriptive in the English or French language of the character or quality of the wares or services in association with which it is to be used or proposed to be used or the conditions of or the person employed in their production or of their place of origin;

(c) a word that is primarily merely the name or the surname of an individual who is living or has died within the preceding 30 years.

(d) the name in any language of any of the wares or services in connection with which it is used or proposed to be used.

There are other restrictions to obtaining registration of a mark which arise out of Section 9 and 10 of the Trademarks Act as well as geographical indications for wine and spirits. There are also exceptions for descriptive words and surnames which may become registerable particularly if they have been used by the owner in Canada or his predecessor in title to the point where they have become distinctive at the date of filing. In this case one has to provide evidence of distinctiveness to the trademarks office when filing either the name or surname of an individual or a descriptive or deceptively mis-descriptive trademark with the Trademarks Office.