If you’re new to the trademarking process in Canada, you may be wondering how long it takes to register your trademark in Canada.
The length of time varies, but if you expect to register your trademark in hours, a few days or weeks, you thought wrong.
Canada Trademark Registration Examination
Canadian trademark registration can take between 18 to 36 months to be examined by the trademark office. Examination times are dependent on how the trademark application is filed and whether or not the goods/services are drafted correctly.
The process has been delayed recently due to the high number of new trademark applications being submitted and not enough examiners to examine them, and also, it takes a considerable amount of time for an examiner to scrutinize your application.
Once your trademark application has been examined, you will receive an office action which is a correspondence from the trademarks office concerning your trademark application.
Canada Trademark Examiner’s report
Office Actions are issued in over 90% of trademark applications. An Office Action is an official correspondence sent by the Trademarks Office. These Office Actions can be for simple issues such as redefinition of goods/services or for a major issue such as a refusal for confusion or descriptiveness. The deadline to respond to an Office Action is 6 months from the date of issue. If no response is received by the Trademarks Office, the application will be abandoned for non-response.
At this junction, if you get confused and don’t know what to do, you can leverage the expertise of Trademark Depot, a team of professionals to come to your rescue.
We can help you respond to the office action and ensure your trademark application gets moved to the approval stage.
Canada trademark publication
Once any Office Actions are handled, your trademark will be approved for publication in the TM Journal for two months to enable third parties to oppose your trademark application if they believe that you’re infringing their rights.
Once the expiration of the opposition deadline elapses, your trademark will receive a certificate of registration, and your trademark will be placed in the trademark register.
Unfortunately, these delays can be quite lengthy. However, that does not mean you are not protected as soon as you file your trademark application.
Canada is a first to file jurisdiction, which means priority will be given to trademark applications according to their filed date. Once you file your trademark application, you will receive a filing date and an application number.
Your filing date and application number are essential as they provide evidence that you filled your trademark on a specific date. If someone else files their trademark after your application, your trademark will take priority.
This is another reason why you must file your trademark application as soon as possible.
Waiting until your business is up and running before you file your trademark application can be risky because a third party can see your mark, apply for the trademark, and register before you.
A delay can cause you a whole boatload of issues, so why take the chance; let us help you file your trademark application as soon as possible.
The Bottom Line
Do you have more questions about trademark registration or any other aspects of trademarking? We’d be happy to answer them.
Get in touch today. You can contact us anytime by calling 1-833 TEAM TMD (1-833-832-6863) or by sending us an email at [email protected]