Trademark Cancellation

Sometimes you will need to cancel someone else’s trademark. For example, a registered trademark may be cited against your application for registration and there is no way to convince the trademark examiners that your application should not be rejected despite the cited trademark.

There are usually two ways to cancel a trademark registration in Canada.

  • The first one is cancellation for non-use for a period of three years. The basic process is that you submit a request to the trademark office to ask the owner of the registered trademark to show use. If the owner of the registered trademark fails to show the use of the registered trademark, then the trademark may be cancelled. You may consider hiring a trademark practitioner to do this on your behalf.
  • The second one is to apply to the court to cancel the registration. You should seriously consider hiring a lawyer experienced in this process to help you. Although we are qualified to provide this service, we choose not to engage in this practice for business reasons.  

Likewise, you may someday face an effort to cancel your trademark registration for various reasons. We will be able to help you for the first type of cancellation effort.