Trade-Marks

3. Getting Started

(a) Trade-Marks Clearance and Pre-Screening

It is possible to search all existing trade-mark registrations and pending applications which have been filed and indexed for searching by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, the United States Trademarks Office, or in various other national trade-mark offices around the world.  Ordinarily, when a trade-mark application is filed in Canada, an Examiner in the Canadian Trade-marks Office will conduct a search of all pending Canadian trade-mark applications and of all issued Canadian Trade-mark registrations.  The Examiner will use this search as a basis for determining whether your trade-mark is registrable.  A pre-screening search of the Canadian trade-marks register is the minimum pre-filing search that should be conducted in order to determine beforehand the availability of a trade-mark for registration in Canada.  While you can carry out such a search yourself in the public search room in Ottawa-Hull, this is not recommended, nor terribly practical.  Moreover, you will not have the opinion of a registered trade-mark agent, which is, generally speaking, at least as valuable as the search results themselves.  In fact, most registered trade-mark agents provide their search opinions at well below their normal billing rates, with the result that cost of the search and opinion does not represent a significantly profitable item.  In other words, although the cost of a preliminary trade-mark search may seem like a significant initial outlay, it represents a good deal for the client.  Moreover, the savings in lost time, energy and money that can accrue to the trade-mark user by early detection and avoidance of a prior trade-mark reference (whether registered or unregistered) will make the search costs seem like the best dollars ever spent.

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