The trademark registration process in Canada will have some significant changes this year as a result of the trademark law reform which has been addopted recently.
The main changes that have to be taken into account by all who want to protect a trademark in there are:
1. The term of trademark protection will be reduced from 15 to 10 years.
2. Declaration of Use will be no longer required from trademark applicants – as it is well-known Canada, similarly to The US, has required until now such declarations which to show a real use of the sign on the market. This was one of the significant differences when it comes to trademark filing compare to Europe, for instance. But no more. Still, trademark use will remain an important element of the protection because it will be a ground for invalidation in the case of a lack of genuine use.
3. Canada will introduce Nice Classification for goods and services for the purpose of trademark filing. In that way, Canada has joined almost all countries around the world that already use this classification.
4. An additional fee will be paid for every class above the first in case of filling of a trademark application or trademark renewal.
WIPO reports about new individual fees payable for designation of Denmark in international applications for trademarks. These fees, which will come into force on 01.07.2019, are as follow:
As of 01.01.2019, some important changes have been introduced in the trademark law in Lithuania, which adopt provisions from the EU Trademark Directive 2015/2436. The most essential of them are:
WIPO reports about the accession of the Republic of San Marino to the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs. This Agreement, which will enter into force for the country on 26.01.2019, gives an easy way for applying for industrial design protection in various countries around the world submitting only one application and paying one total fee instead of doing that in every single country.
