What You Need to Know about Recent and Pending Changes to Canadian Intellectual Property Laws

  • December 17, 2018
  • Lorraine M. Fleck

Over the past several years, the Canadian government has laid the ground work for sweeping changes to Canadian intellectual property laws, mainly in trademarks, but more recently with respect to patents, copyright, industrial designs and trade secrets, as well as the regulation of IP professionals. Some of these proposed amendments are the subject of proposed legislation such as the omnibus budget bill (Bill C-86), introduced on October 29, 2018, and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) or Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), which requires ratification by all parties. Other changes are the result of Canadian trademark legislation that has already been passed and whose implementation date was recently announced to be June 17, 2019.

Below is an outline of some of the significant confirmed changes with their effective date of implementation if known, as well as proposed changes working their way through the legislative process.

I.     Copyright

A.      Proposed changes in USMCA/CUSMA

   1.      Copyright term extended from 50 years to 70 years following the life of the author.

B.       Proposed changes in Bill C-86

   1.       Regulation-making power to prohibit notices under the Copyright Act’s “notice and notice” regime from containing specific types of information, as well as bars on such a notice containing an offer to settle, a request or demand for payment, or any reference to a settlement offer, payment request or demand.

   2.       Procedural changes for the Copyright Board, including:

     i.          New timelines for Board matters, such as earlier filing dates for proposed tariffs and longer effective period for approved tariffs;

     ii.        Formalized case management of Board proceedings;

     iii.     Streamlining procedural steps across different tariff contexts, maintaining differences between them only where necessary;

     iv.      Amended enforcement provisions, including statutory damages for certain parties in respect of Board-set royalty rates and enforcement of Board-set terms and conditions;

     v.        Reduction of the number of matters that must be considered by the Board.