Rights Obtained Through Use and Obtained Through  Registration

A person who adopts a trademark or a trade name and uses that trade name or trademark in commerce in a given territory will enjoy a certain ambit of protection for the use of this trademark in the territory in which the mark has become well known if only the mark has developed a reputation. These rights are usually referred to as common laws obtained through use of the mark. Therefore, for example if a company begins using a certain trademark in Ontario, but fails to use this mark in any other Province and/or in any other geographical area then the user of this mark will only have common law rights to this name in the Province of Ontario and in no other Province and/or geographical area.

A registered trademark on the other hand gives the owner of the trademark the exclusive right to use through out Canada the trademark in respect of the wares or services for which they have registration. These rights are not dependant upon having used the trademark in every Province or territory in Canada.