Upcoming changes to the Trade-marks Act: broadening of the non-traditional trademarks that may be registered

A trademark enables consumers to associate products and services with a single source. The most common types of trademarks are essentially made up of words, design marks (logos) and words that integrate a design mark.

The Trade-marks Act (hereinafter the "Act") currently allows for the registration of certain non-traditional trademarks, such as colours, provided they apply to a specific subject. It also allows for the registration of the particular form of a subject or mode of packaging (distinguishing guises). The same applies to a sound mark, such as the MGM roar created by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios or a moving image, such as the gun barrel sequence at the start of James Bond films.

With the changes that come into effect on June 17, 2019, and subject to certain requirements, CIPO will begin to receive applications to register other, less common marks such as holograms, scents, tastes, textures and colours that do not apply to a specific subject, as well as the positioning of signs. Shapes of a subject and modes of packaging may still be registered but not as distinctive guises. This notion will disappear.