Further amendments to the Trademarks Regulations were published in the Canada Gazette Part 2 this week. These amendments relate to  changes to the Trademarks Act that received royal asset in December 2018 directed to simplifying the opposition practice with divisional applications as part of the changes coming into force on June 17th.

The purpose of the regulatory changes (link) are described as follows:

As a result, on December 13, 2018, as part of the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, the amendments were made to the Act in order to eliminate this potential misuse of the divisional application process. It does this by clarifying that if an original application has been advertised, an applicant may only include goods and services in a divisional application that are within the scope of the original application on the day on which the divisional application is filed. Further technical drafting amendments were also included. Given these changes, the Regulations need to be revised to remove the now unnecessary complex provisions dealing with divisional applications. In addition, corresponding changes are required to the Madrid Protocol portion of the Regulations dealing with divisional applications and other technical drafting amendments.