During a recent meeting, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) revealed plans for a significant reduction in the first examination of Canadian trademark applications not using the pre-approved list of goods and services from 54 months to 24 months by March 2025. This announcement follows CIPO’s recent hiring of 160 new examiners.
Currently, applications using the pre-approved list are examined in just over 17 months, while Madrid applications are examined in about 18 months.
This improvement will undoubtedly be welcomed by trademark owners and practitioners. Quality of examination may be impacted but should improve significantly in the year to come as the new examiners gain experience.
In the meantime, we invite you to consult our article for current options to expedite the examination of trademark applications in Canada.