A minor amendment has been made to the Industrial Design Regulations repealing section 12(3). The Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations advised that an inconsistency between the English and French versions of the Industrial Design Act meant the section may be invalid.

Section 12(3) of the Industrial Design Regulations provided that:

Documents filed in electronic form in connection with applications and registered designs must be in an electronic format specified by the Commissioner in the Canadian Patent Office Record.

According to the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement for the amendment:

The Committee then pointed out that subsection 12(3) of the Industrial Design Regulations prescribes the form of an application by the Commissioner of Patents in the Canadian Patent Office Record, which is supported by the broader English text, but not by the French text. The Committee therefore concluded that subsection 12(3) of the Regulations is invalid and requested that CIPO take steps to rectify this situation.

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CIPO is of the view that to otherwise amend the Act to correct this one inconsistency is not feasible at this moment. CIPO has, however, determined that removing subsection 12(3) would have no impact on the effectiveness of the Regulations, but still satisfy the Committee’s concerns.

The form of correspondence addressed to the Commissioner, including electronic means is specified in Section 3(6) of the Regulations:

3(6) Correspondence addressed to the Commissioner may be sent at any time by electronic or other means of transmission specified by the Commissioner in the Canadian Patent Office Record.