Three types of trademarks. In Canada there are 3 types of trademarks: -Ordinary marks. -Certification marks. -Official marks. Most business trademarks are ordinary marks. Strictly speaking there is no such thing as a ‘service mark’ in Canada: trademarks may apply…
Staples has done a brilliant job of holding Office Depot out of the Canadian market, and one factor must be its skillful use of the BUSINESS DEPOT trademark which it acquired when it bought a beachhead in the Canadian market.…
We face a crisis of ignorance about intellectual property - seriously, more people know less about IP than any other core business discipline. IP is not the be-all or end-all of business. Lots of other disciplines like marketing, sales, finance…
Table of Contents Unusual Features of Canadian Trademark Law No Nice. No Madrid Registration and Use Abroad Deadline for Filing Key Concepts in Canadian Trademarks Confusion Use Association Proposed Use Registrability Entitlement to Register First to Use not First to…
One of the key challenges for entrepreneurship and innovation in Canada is that so much of the economy is dominated by de facto oligopolies, often regulated ones. For instance, banking and telecom, are dominated by a few titans protected from…
One of the key challenges for innovation and entrepreneurship in Canada is that so much of the economy is 'derivative', and especially dependent on innovation and entrepreneurship that took place elsewhere and has now been imported into Canada. Many Canadians…
Among the many challenges facing entrepreneurs and innovators in Canada is the lack of role models. People who have 'been there and done that' are a huge source of motivation and inspiration for others. In Ottawa in the mid 1990s,…
There is lots of talk about Canada needing a national securities regulator and very little action. I think that one of the main reasons for this is that in fact, there is no compelling need in Ontario for a national…
Caveat Investor With OSC hearings underway for the Sino-Forest fiasco, I thought it time to think about the lessons it and similar investor frauds teach us. Curious what one of these frauds looks like? Read this press release and ask…
Good public infrastructure and good public policy are crucial for entrepreneurs. The overly simplistic notion that all government needs to do is "just get out of the way" grossly fails to capture the myriad important things government must do in…