Apply to register your trademark in Canada to protect your brand and have the right to use it across Canada for the goods and services that you claim in your application. Apply to register your trademark in Canada so that you may use the trademark symbol
Once you have applied to register your trademark in Canada, you may use the trademark symbol: TM.
After you have successfully registered your trademark in Canada, you may use the ® trademark symbol.
To register your trademark in Canada, we need to submit the following information:
- The trademark: a word, design, colour, or sound;
- The applicant’s name and address;
- The basis for the application: proposed use, actual use, certification mark, or foreign registration;
- A list of Goods and Services (Search for goods and services); and
- A $330 government application fee for the first class and $100 for each additional class
Prosecution and registration fees are not included in the application fee. You may need to hire a trademark agent or a trademark lawyer if your trademark application is rejected on the basis that it is not registrable or if someone opposes your trademark application.
Types of Canadian Trademarks
Trademarks can be one or many words, sounds or designs used to distinguish the goods or services of one person or organization from those of others.
Over time, trademarks come to stand for not only the actual goods or services a person or company makes, but also the reputation of the producer. Trademarks are very valuable intellectual property.
There are three types of trademarks:
- An ordinary mark is made up of words, sounds, designs or a combination of these used to distinguish the goods or services of one person or organization from those of others. For example, suppose you started a flooring business that you chose to call Glox. You could register Glox as a trademark (if you met all the legal requirements) for the service that you offer.
- A certification mark can be licensed to many people or companies for the purpose of showing that certain goods or services meet a defined standard. For example, the Woolmark design, owned by Woolmark Americas Ltd., is used on clothing and other goods.
- A distinguishing guise is about the shape of goods or their containers, or a way of wrapping or packaging goods that shows they have been made by a specific individual or firm. For example, if you manufactured duck-shaped bottle you could register the duck shape as a distinguishing guise. The definition “distinguishing guise” in section 2 of the Act is repealed in the upcoming amendments to the Trademarks Act.
A patent is not a trademark. Patents cover new and useful inventions (products, compositions, machines, processes) or any new and useful improvement to an existing invention.
A trademark is registrable if it is not:
- A name or surname;
- Clearly descriptive of the goods and services claimed;
- Deceptively misdescriptive of the goods and services claimed
- Words that represent a geographical location commonly known to be the place of origin of such goods or services
- Words in other languages (eg. VODA for water);
- Words or designs that could be confused with a registered trademark or pending trademark;
- Words or designs that look very similar to a prohibited mark.
Prohibited Trademarks in Canada
A trademark may not be registrable if it is a restricted or prohibited mark because it is:
- an official mark,
- a protected geographic indication,
- an Olympic mark, or
- a denomination under the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act that is used to designate a plant variety.
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9 (1) No person shall adopt in connection with a business, as a trade-mark or otherwise, any mark consisting of, or so nearly resembling as to be likely to be mistaken for,
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(c) the standard, arms or crest of His Excellency the Governor General;
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(d) any word or symbol likely to lead to the belief that the goods or services in association with which it is used have received, or are produced, sold or performed under, royal, vice-regal or governmental patronage, approval or authority;
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(e) the arms, crest or flag adopted and used at any time by Canada or by any province or municipal corporation in Canada in respect of which the Registrar has, at the request of the Government of Canada or of the province or municipal corporation concerned, given public notice of its adoption and use;
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(f) the emblem of the Red Cross on a white ground, formed by reversing the federal colours of Switzerland and retained by the Geneva Convention for the Protection of War Victims of 1949 as the emblem and distinctive sign of the Medical Service of armed forces and used by the Canadian Red Cross Society, or the expression “Red Cross” or “Geneva Cross”;
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(g) the emblem of the Red Crescent on a white ground adopted for the same purpose as specified in paragraph (f);
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(g.1) the third Protocol emblem — commonly known as the “Red Crystal” — referred to in Article 2, paragraph 2 of Schedule VII to the Geneva Conventions Act and composed of a red frame in the shape of a square on edge on a white ground, adopted for the same purpose as specified in paragraph (f);
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(h) the equivalent sign of the Red Lion and Sun used by Iran for the same purpose as specified in paragraph (f);
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(h.1) the international distinctive sign of civil defence (equilateral blue triangle on an orange ground) referred to in Article 66, paragraph 4 of Schedule V to the Geneva Conventions Act;
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(i) any territorial or civic flag or any national, territorial or civic arms, crest or emblem, of a country of the Union, if the flag, arms, crest or emblem is on a list communicated under article 6ter of the Convention or pursuant to the obligations under the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights set out in Annex 1C to the WTO Agreement stemming from that article, and the Registrar gives public notice of the communication;
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(i.1) any official sign or hallmark indicating control or warranty adopted by a country of the Union, if the sign or hallmark is on a list communicated under article 6ter of the Convention or pursuant to the obligations under the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights set out in Annex 1C to the WTO Agreement stemming from that article, and the Registrar gives public notice of the communication;
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(i.3) any armorial bearing, flag or other emblem, or the name or any abbreviation of the name, of an international intergovernmental organization, if the armorial bearing, flag, emblem, name or abbreviation is on a list communicated under article 6ter of the Convention or pursuant to the obligations under the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights set out in Annex 1C to the WTO Agreement stemming from that article, and the Registrar gives public notice of the communication;
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(k) any matter that may falsely suggest a connection with any living individual;
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(l) the portrait or signature of any individual who is living or has died within the preceding thirty years;
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(m) the words “United Nations” or the official seal or emblem of the United Nations;
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(n) any badge, crest, emblem or mark
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(i) adopted or used by any of Her Majesty’s Forces as defined in the National Defence Act,
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(iii) adopted and used by any public authority, in Canada as an official mark for goods or services,
in respect of which the Registrar has, at the request of Her Majesty or of the university or public authority, as the case may be, given public notice of its adoption and use;
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(n.1) any armorial bearings granted, recorded or approved for use by a recipient pursuant to the prerogative powers of Her Majesty as exercised by the Governor General in respect of the granting of armorial bearings, if the Registrar has, at the request of the Governor General, given public notice of the grant, recording or approval; or
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(o) the name “Royal Canadian Mounted Police” or “R.C.M.P.” or any other combination of letters relating to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or any pictorial representation of a uniformed member thereof.