The Canadian Intellectual Property Office amended its service standards for trademarks to better reflect the length of the current trademark registration process.
More Realistic Service Standards
New service standards for trademarks came into effect on January 1, 2024. The amendments significantly lengthen the previous service standards but will not result in a lengthening of the trademark registration process.
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) amended the service standards to better reflect examination time and increase predictability for applicants. The previous service standards were outdated and did not reflect actual application wait times. For example, prior to these amendments, the service standard for examination of an electronic application for the registration of a trademark was 2 weeks, but, in practice as of January 4, 2024, trademark applications faced up to a 55 month wait for examination.
The table below summarizes the amendments to the trademark service standards:
Addressing Delays
CIPO is aware of the delays in the trademark examination process. According to its 2023-2028 Business Strategy, CIPO’s first priority is to deliver timely quality intellectual property services. The 2023-2028 Business Strategy sets out the ways CIPO is attempting to remedy the current trademark examination backlog, which include hiring more trademark examiners, leveraging IT solutions to bring process efficiencies, and expanding the pre-approved list of goods and services.
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