CIPO on Intellectual Property and Competetiveness

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has made a submission to the Competition Policy Review Panel. They make several points:

on trademark registration:

• Canada should join the Madrid system of international registration of trade-marks offers trade-mark owners, which allows trade-mark owners to have their marks protected in multiple member countries by filing one application for registration with the local IP office
  

• Canada should ratify the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks, which would mean "more harmonized policies with respect to registration and maintenance of trade-marks, and a somewhat stronger voice for Canada in negotiating ongoing changes to the international trade-mark regime."

on patent commercialization:

• "improving access to relevant IP data" for SMEs, since such access is "instrumental to the identification of successful commercialization partnerships both domestically and internationally"
• "better support for technology transfer capacity in universities and promote a culture of entrepreneurship and commercialization in these settings"

on harmonization generally:

• Although they don't mention the WIPO copyright treaties directly, they push international IP harmonization hard, arguing that a
  

"“tyranny of small differences” between regimes that can impose significant costs on Canadian businesses operating in foreign markets. Addressing these “small differences” through initiatives that harmonize the processes of registration and maintenance of IP rights is likely to effect a positive change in both Canada's attractiveness as a place to do business and in the global outlook of Canadian companies."

"Greater harmonization of administrative processes also allows foreign enterprises wishing to invest in or partner with Canadian firms to register and protect their intellectual property without adjusting to as many of the particularities of the Canadian IP system."

CIPO updates business plan

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has just updated their business plan. One element of the plan includes a focus on international copyright. According to CIPO's plan, CIPO will become more active on the international stage. In September, for example, CIPO will head the Canadian delegation to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)'s meeting of the General Assembly, where the proposed development agenda for WIPO will be voted upon. CIPO's Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trade-marks and Chief Executive Officer, David Tobin, led the delegation last year. Mary Carman took over his position in April.