Trademarks Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. T-13)

Marginal note:Notice for information

• 44 (1) The Registrar may at any time, and shall at the request of any person who pays the prescribed fee, by notice in writing require the registered owner of any trademark that was on the register on July 1, 1954 to furnish him within three months from the date of the notice with the information that would be required on an application for the registration of the trademark made at the date of the notice.

• Marginal note:Amendments to register

  (2) The Registrar may amend the registration of the trademark in accordance with the information furnished to him under subsection (1).

• Marginal note:Failure to give information

  (3) Where the information required by subsection (1) is not furnished, the Registrar shall by a further notice fix a reasonable time after which, if the information is not furnished, he may expunge the registration of the trademark.

Marginal note:Registrar may require amendment

• 44.1 (1) The Registrar may give notice to the registered owner of a trademark requiring the owner to furnish the Registrar, in the prescribed time and manner, with a statement of the goods or services in respect of which the trademark is registered, in which those goods or services are grouped in the manner described in subsection 30(3).

• Marginal note:Amendments to register

  (2) The Registrar may amend the register in accordance with the statement furnished under subsection (1).

• Marginal note:Failure to furnish statement

  (3) If the statement required by subsection (1) is not furnished, the Registrar shall by a further notice fix a reasonable time after which, if the statement is not furnished, the Registrar may expunge the registration of the trademark or refuse to renew it.

• Marginal note:Disagreement

  (4) Any question arising as to the class within which any goods or services are to be grouped shall be determined by the Registrar, whose determination is not subject to appeal.

Marginal note:Registrar may request evidence of use

• 45 (1) After three years beginning on the day on which a trademark is registered, unless the Registrar sees good reason to the contrary, the Registrar shall, at the written request of any person who pays the prescribed fee — or may, on his or her own initiative — give notice to the registered owner of the trademark requiring the registered owner to furnish within three months an affidavit or a statutory declaration showing, with respect to all the goods or services specified in the registration or to those that may be specified in the notice, whether the trademark was in use in Canada at any time during the three-year period immediately preceding the date of the notice and, if not, the date when it was last so in use and the reason for the absence of such use since that date.

• Marginal note:Form of evidence

  (2) The Registrar shall not receive any evidence other than the affidavit or statutory declaration, but may receive representations made in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time by the registered owner of the trademark or by the person at whose request the notice was given.

• Marginal note:Service

  (2.1) The registered owner of the trademark shall, in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time, serve on the person at whose request the notice was given any evidence that the registered owner submits to the Registrar. Those parties shall, in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time, serve on each other any written representations that they submit to the Registrar.

• Marginal note:Failure to serve

  (2.2) The Registrar is not required to consider any evidence or written representations that was not served in accordance with subsection (2.1).

• Marginal note:Effect of non-use

  (3) Where, by reason of the evidence furnished to the Registrar or the failure to furnish any evidence, it appears to the Registrar that a trademark, either with respect to all of the goods or services specified in the registration or with respect to any of those goods or services, was not used in Canada at any time during the three year period immediately preceding the date of the notice and that the absence of use has not been due to special circumstances that excuse the absence of use, the registration of the trademark is liable to be expunged or amended accordingly.

• Marginal note:Notice to owner

  (4) When the Registrar reaches a decision whether or not the registration of a trademark ought to be expunged or amended, he shall give notice of his decision with the reasons therefor to the registered owner of the trademark and to the person at whose request the notice referred to in subsection (1) was given.

• Marginal note:Action by Registrar

  (5) The Registrar shall act in accordance with his decision if no appeal therefrom is taken within the time limited by this Act or, if an appeal is taken, shall act in accordance with the final judgment given in the appeal.

Renewal of Registrations

Marginal note:Term

• 46 (1) Subject to any other provision of this Act, the registration of a trademark is on the register for an initial period of 10 years beginning on the day of the registration and for subsequent renewal periods of 10 years if, for each renewal, the prescribed renewal fee is paid within the prescribed period.

• Marginal note:Notice to renew

  (2) If the initial period or a renewal period expires and the prescribed renewal fee has not been paid, the Registrar shall send a notice to the registered owner stating that if the fee is not paid within the prescribed period, the registration will be expunged.

• Marginal note:Failure to renew

  (3) If the prescribed renewal fee is not paid within the prescribed period, the Registrar shall expunge the registration. The registration is deemed to have been expunged at the expiry of the initial period or the last renewal period.

• Marginal note:Renewal

  (4) If the prescribed renewal fee is paid within the prescribed period, the renewal period begins at the expiry of the initial period or the last renewal period.

• Marginal note:Extension

  (5) A registered owner is not permitted to apply under section 47 for an extension of the prescribed period until that period has expired, and the Registrar is not permitted to extend the period by more than seven days.

• Marginal note:Prescribed period

  (6) For the purposes of this section, the prescribed period begins at least six months before the expiry of the initial period or the renewal period and ends no earlier than six months after the expiry of that period.

Marginal note:Renewal for goods or services

46.1 The registration of a trademark may be renewed for any of the goods or services in respect of which the trademark is registered.

Extensions of Time

Marginal note:Extensions of time

• 47 (1) If, in any case, the Registrar is satisfied that the circumstances justify an extension of the time fixed by this Act or prescribed by the regulations for the doing of any act, he may, except as in this Act otherwise provided, extend the time after such notice to other persons and on such terms as he may direct.

• Marginal note:Conditions

  (2) An extension applied for after the expiration of the time fixed for the doing of an act or the time extended by the Registrar under subsection (1) shall not be granted unless the prescribed fee is paid and the Registrar is satisfied that the failure to do the act or apply for the extension within that time or the extended time was not reasonably avoidable.

Marginal note:Proceeding under section 45

• 47.1 (1) The Registrar shall grant an extension of any time limit fixed under this Act in the context of a proceeding commenced by the Registrar, on his or her own initiative, under section 45, if the extension is requested after the expiry of the time limit and within two months after its expiry.

• Marginal note:One time extension

  (2) No extension under subsection (1) shall be granted more than once.

Transfer

Marginal note:Trademark transferable

• 48 (1) A trademark, whether registered or unregistered, is transferable, and deemed always to have been transferable, either in connection with or separately from the goodwill of the business and in respect of either all or some of the goods or services in association with which it has been used.

• Marginal note:Where two or more persons interested

  (2) Nothing in subsection (1) prevents a trademark from being held not to be distinctive if as a result of a transfer thereof there subsisted rights in two or more persons to the use of confusing trademarks and the rights were exercised by those persons.

• Marginal note:Transfer of application

  (3) The Registrar shall, subject to the regulations, record the transfer of an application for the registration of a trademark on the request of the applicant or, on receipt of evidence satisfactory to the Registrar of the transfer, on the request of a transferee of the application.

• Marginal note:Transfer of trademark

  (4) The Registrar shall, subject to the regulations, register the transfer of any registered trademark on the request of the registered owner or, on receipt of evidence satisfactory to the Registrar of the transfer, on the request of a transferee of the trademark.

• Marginal note:Removal of recording or registration

  (5) The Registrar shall remove the recording or the registration of the transfer referred to in subsection (3) or (4) on receipt of evidence satisfactory to the Registrar that the transfer should not have been recorded or registered.

Change of Purpose in Use of Trademark

Marginal note:Change of purpose

49 If a sign or combination of signs is used by a person as a trademark for any of the purposes or in any of the manners mentioned in the definition certification mark or trademark in section 2, no application for the registration of the trademark shall be refused and no registration of the trademark shall be expunged, amended or held invalid merely on the ground that the person or a predecessor in title uses the trademark or has used it for any other of those purposes or in any other of those manners.

Licences

Marginal note:Licence to use trademark

• 50 (1) For the purposes of this Act, if an entity is licensed by or with the authority of the owner of a trademark to use the trademark in a country and the owner has, under the licence, direct or indirect control of the character or quality of the goods or services, then the use, advertisement or display of the trademark in that country as or in a trademark, trade name or otherwise by that entity has, and is deemed always to have had, the same effect as such a use, advertisement or display of the trademark in that country by the owner.

• Marginal note:Idem

  (2) For the purposes of this Act, to the extent that public notice is given of the fact that the use of a trademark is a licensed use and of the identity of the owner, it shall be presumed, unless the contrary is proven, that the use is licensed by the owner of the trademark and the character or quality of the goods or services is under the control of the owner.

• Marginal note:Owner may be required to take proceedings

  (3) Subject to any agreement subsisting between an owner of a trademark and a licensee of the trademark, the licensee may call on the owner to take proceedings for infringement thereof, and, if the owner refuses or neglects to do so within two months after being so called on, the licensee may institute proceedings for infringement in the licensee’s own name as if the licensee were the owner, making the owner a defendant.