Recently, the Federal Court of Canada issued a decision, Beijing Judian Restaurant Co. Ltd. v. Meng, 2022 FC 743, which is the first decision in Canada that expunged a registered trademark on the new “bad faith” ground that was codified in the Trademarks Act in 2019. Summary A trademark troll lost his/her trademark registration because … Read more
According to section 12(1)(b) of the Trademarks Act of Canada, a trademark is not registrable if it is “clearly descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive … of their place of origin.” In Nia Wine Group Co., Ltd. v. North 42 Degrees Estate Winery Inc., 2022 FC 241, the Federal Court of Canada reasoned that “place of origin” … Read more
For the first time, the Federal Court interpreted the privilege granted to a non-lawyer patent agent by section 16.1(1) of the Patent Act in Janssen Inc and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation v Sandoz Canada Inc, 2021 FC 1265. In its decision, the court determined that the privilege is restricted compared to the client-attorney privilege between … Read more