Trademark Pro

Cancelling a Trademark in Canada

David Michaels

Cancelling a Trademark in Canada can be done in two ways.

Canceling a Trademark Based on Non-Use

Start a section 45 proceeding with the Registrar of Trademarks in the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. A section 45 proceeding is not a court proceeding. However, either party may appeal from the Registrar of Trademark’s decision to the Federal Court of Canada. This is usually a relatively quick and inexpensive process.

Canceling a Trademark Based on Fraud, Priority, Non-Distinctiveness, or other Statutory Basis

Start a court proceeding in the Federal Court of Canada called an Application. Applications to the Federal Court of Canada cost at least $10,000 to start. They may end up costing $100,000 or more, based on motions, cross-examinations, and trials.

 

Starting a Section 45 Proceeding

To cancel a trademark, you need to start a section 45 proceeding. The trademark owner must file evidence showing “use” of its registered trademark within the 3 years before the day that the section 45 proceeding starts. So don’t threaten a trademark owner about your plans, just mark a section 45 request with the Registrar of Trademarks so that the trademark owner doesn’t make some token use at the last minute. If the trademark owner does not respond, the trademark will be canceled in about 6 to 9 months.

A single sale might constitute use of mark in the normal course of trade, unless evidence that sale manufactured solely to protect mark. 88766 Canada Inc. v. Paulaner-Salvator-Thomasbräu AG (1996), 68 C.P.R. (3d) 360 (Fed. T.D.) ; Siscoe Vermiculite Mines Ltd. v. Munn & Steele Inc. (1959), 18 Fox Pat. C. 160 (Can. Ex. Ct.)

Buy our Trademark Cancellation service to anonymously mark a section 45 request against a Canadian registered trademark. If the registered trademark holder fails to respond within the 90-day period specified by the Registrar of Trademarks, the trademark will be canceled by default.

Sometimes you will be only partially successful in canceling a trademark registration if the trademark is being used in connection with some goods and services, but not all of the goods and services claimed in the registration. That may be a good enough win sometimes.

The use of the trademark must be more than in the trademark registrant’s general advertising. The use of the trademark must be in the trademark sense, as detailed in section 4 of the Trademarks Act:

When is a trademark deemed to be used? According to Section 4 of the Trademarks Act,

4 (1) A trade-mark is deemed to be used in association with goods if, at the time of the transfer of the property in or possession of the goods, in the normal course of trade, it is marked on the goods themselves or on the packages in which they are distributed or it is in any other manner so associated with the goods that notice of the association is then given to the person to whom the property or possession is transferred.

(2) A trade-mark is deemed to be used in association with services if it is used or displayed in the performance or advertising of those services.

Use by exporting goods

(3) A trade-mark that is marked in Canada on goods or on the packages in which they are contained is, when the goods are exported from Canada, deemed to be used in Canada in association with those goods.

R.S., 1985, c. T-13, s. 4; 2014, c. 32, ss. 53, 54(F).

Who Can Make a Section 45 Request?

Anyone may file a section 45 request with the Registrar of Trademarks in Canada. David Michaels files section 45 requests for clients who wish to remain anonymous. Clients may hire separate counsel to represent David Michaels before the Trademarks Opposition Board or the Federal Court of Canada if there is an appeal.

Why file a Section 45 Request?

Sometimes a registered trademark is not being used in connection with some or any of the goods and services listed in the registration and the trademark is preventing someone from getting their trademark approved by a trademarks examiner. An easy response in such cases is to make a section 45 request to cancel (expunge) the cited trademark. If the trademark owner does not respond to the request, the trademark will be canceled in about 6 to 9 months.

And sometimes a trademark bully is asserting a set of trademarks registered for a number of goods and services when it is not actually using all of their trademarks with all of the goods and services covered. That is called trademark squatting and the bully deserves to lose its trademark registrations. Trademark bullies are sometimes called trademark trolls.

What does a trademark owner have to do to respond to a section 45 request?

Within 3 months of the date that the Registrar of Trademarks issued the section 45 notice, a trademark owner must file evidence showing use of the registered trademark,

“…with respect to each of the goods or services specified in the registration, whether the trademark was in use in Canada at any time during the three-year period immediately preceding the date of the notice…”

A registrant, or preferably its trademark agent, should take one of the following actions within the three-month time period, failing which its trademark registration may be expunged:

  1. File one or more affidavits or statutory declarations showing use of the registered trademark during the relevant period and send a copy to the requesting party; or
  2. Request an extension of time for the filing of evidence and pay the prescribed fee; the request must:
    1. identify the trademark registration by number and trademark;
    2. provide sufficient reasons to explain why the extension of time is required;
    3. indicate the method by which the prescribed fee (see Payment of prescribed fees)
    4. Send a copy of the extension of time request to the requesting party.

Form of evidence to file

See Evidence in Practice in Section 45 Proceedings.

Note the following:

The exact nature of the evidence to be filed depends on the circumstances of the trademark registration and the goods and services covered. A registered trademark agent can assist you in determining what evidence is needed in order to put your best case forward.

The evidence must be filed with the TMOB and a copy sent to the requesting party within the set deadline. Extensions of time may be available.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr01843.html?Open&wt_src=cipo-tm-main

Excusable Non-Use of a Registered Trademark

Trademarks are supposed to be registered only for the goods and services that the trademark owner is actually selling. Examples of excusable non-use of a registered trademark include:

Rights conferred by registration

19. Subject to sections 21, 32 and 67, the registration of a trade-mark in respect of any goods or services, unless shown to be invalid, gives to the owner of the trademark the exclusive right to the use throughout Canada of the trade-mark in respect of those goods or services.

  • R.S., 1985, c. T-13, s. 19;
  • 1993, c. 15, s. 60;
  • 2014, c. 32, s. 53.
Exclusive jurisdiction of Federal Court

In 2002, the Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed that the court does not have the jurisdiction to enjoin a registered trademark holder from using its valid and existing trademark registration in respect of those goods or services for which it is registered, in Molson Canada v. Oland Breweries Ltd., 2002 CanLII 44947 (ON CA), stating:

[16] My conclusion from this review of the case law is that the respondent is entitled to use its mark throughout Canada in association with its beer. If a competitor takes exception to that use, its sole recourse is to attack the validity of the registration. If it were otherwise, a plaintiff complaining of confusion caused by a competitor’s registered mark would himself be infringing on the mark by establishing that confusion. This follows from s. 20 of the Act, which provides that a registered mark is deemed infringed by a person who sells wares with a confusing trade-mark or trade name.

 

The standard stages in a section 45 proceeding in Canada are:

  1. Issuance of Section 45 Notice:
    1. anyone (the requesting party) may ask the Registrar of Trademarks (the Registrar) to issue a notice under s. 45 – a notice will generally be issued provided the prescribed fee is paid and the registration has been on the Register for more than three years and has not been the subject of a s. 45 decision during the preceding three years.
  2. Evidence Stage:
    1. the owner of a trademark registration (the registrant) files evidence in the form of affidavits or statutory declarations.
  3. Argument Stage:
    1. the requesting party is given an opportunity to file written representations concerning the adequacy of the registrant’s evidence;
    2. the registrant is given an opportunity to file written representations concerning the adequacy of its evidence;
    3. the registrant and the requesting party are each given an opportunity to make submissions at an oral hearing.

Once all of three stages are complete, the Registrar issues a written decision. A trademark owner may appeal this decision to the Federal Court of Canada.

 

The Registrar of Trademarks may at any time, and at the written request made after three years from the date of the registration by any person who pays the prescribed fee shall, unless he or she sees good reason to the contrary, give notice to the registered owner requiring him or her to furnish within three months an affidavit or statutory declaration showing with respect to each of the wares or services specified in the registration, whether the trade-mark was in use in Canada at any time during the two-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 such date. Trade-marks Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. T-13, s. 45
The criteria for establishing use are not demanding and an overabundance of evidence is not necessary. However, sufficient evidence must nevertheless be provided to allow the registrar to conclude that the trade-mark was used in association with each of the registered services during the relevant period.2
Mere assertions of use are not sufficient to demonstrate use.
The purpose of this provision is to provide a summary procedure for trimming the register of “dead wood”4 which precludes new applications. The section provides an alternative to proceedings in the Federal Court seeking expungement.5
In order to ensure the summary nature of the proceeding, a requesting party cannot file evidence before the registrar; the registrar may, however, hear representations by or on behalf of either the registered owner or the requesting party.6 Further, cross-examination on the affidavit or statutory declaration of the registered owner is not allowed.7
There is no provision in the Trade-marks Act or regulations permitting the registrar to order cross-examination on the affidavit of the registered owner in proceedings under the Act.8 Such proceedings are meant to be simple, expeditious and summary in nature and are designed solely to permit a registered owner to demonstrate that his or her trade-mark is in use.9 However, cross-examination may be allowed where affidavit evidence is ambiguous or contains unsupported expert opinions.10

Important cases in Section 45 proceedings in Canada

Important USPTO TTAB Decisions in Cancellation Proceedings

Noble House Home Furnishings, LLC v. Floorco Enterprises, LLC, 118 USPQ2d 1413 (TTAB 2016) [precedential].