Trademark Online Services – Release Notes

What's New?

Group Goods and Services (Nice)–

For a renewed trademark with an effective renewal date on or after June 17, 2019, the client has the ability to pay for additional class(es) at renewal on the "Closing Details page".

The user will be prompted for the number of additional class(es) (between 1 and 44). The system will calculate the fee amount based on the number the user enters.

What's Improved?

• Adjustment of fees for trademark online requests - The online services now reflect periodic fee adjustments including displaying of fee amounts for services selected and payment processing.
• Validation of fees when submitting cart transactions – The online cart now validates the transaction fee amounts pursuant to the annual fee adjustment.

The following messages will be displayed if the fee amounts have been adjusted since the item was included in the cart are:

• When attempting payment: 
  • "Your transaction could not be completed as the fee amount required for one or more items has changed since they were first added to the cart. We invite you to review those items and proceed with the payment. For more information, or to find out the exact amount of a fee, please consult the list of fees available on CIPO's website."
• In the cart:
  • "Please note that the fee amount required for one or more items has changed since they were first added to the cart. We invite you to review those items and proceed with the payment. For more information, or to find out the exact amount of a fee, please consult the list of fees available on CIPO's website."

What's Improved?

Send a General correspondence

• The informative text has been updated on the "Correspondence details" page.

What's New?

• The "Attention To" field has a maximum limit of 40 characters.

What's Improved?

• For each statement of goods or services, the system now permits a user to add a new priority claim, a claim copied from a list of priority claims previously entered claims on that application, or a combination of both.

What's Fixed?

• If the applicant search is used, only the applicant's name and address will be populated;
• The closing details page "Comments" field now permits paragraph format;
• When selecting an application where a now invalid country code exists, the system will no longer return a Java error.

Group Goods or Services (NICE) –

• The system no longer indicates a Java error on files where a Used in Canada or Made Known in Canada claim exists.

What's New?

A new electronic General Correspondence online service:

• This new general correspondence service is available within the current eFiling system on the CIPO website and allows applicants, registered owners, and their agents, to send correspondence on a variety of trademark topics to the Office through the website, as an alternative to facsimile or postal mail.
• A client will be able to submit the following types of correspondence to the Registrar electronically via this new online service:
  • Amendment to standard of a registered certification mark
  • Application to extend goods or services of a registration
  • Appointment or Revocation of agent
  • Cancellation or Withdrawal
  • Change of name or address
  • Correction to entry in the register
  • Merger of registrations resulting from a division
  • Division of an application
  • Extension of time
  • Geographical Indication response
  • License Agreement
  • Security Agreement
  • Seizure
  • Notification of 3rd party rights
  • Refund of a fee
  • Payment of a fee
  • Prohibited mark response
  • Transfer of Ownership

Important: This service is only available where CIPO does not already have a dedicated online service. Clients may not use this service to:

• file a new trademark application;
• amend a previously-filed trademark application;
• file an application for International Registration;
• pay the registration fee for a trademark which is pending registration;
• renew a registration;
• pay an adjusted renewal fee;
• group goods or services according to the Nice Classification.

What's New?

• A pop-up message will appear when input characters are not supported by the system.

Filing a new application –
Amend a previously filed application –

• A visual representation is mandatory when selecting a hologram mark;
• The visual representation for a sound mark must be in black and white;
• A pop-up message will appear informing you when a custom good or service statement exceeds 500,000 characters.

What's Improved?

• On the closing details page the field "Additional information" has been renamed to "Comments" and moved from the end of the submission forms to the top.

What's Fixed?

Group Goods and Services (Nice) –

• The heading being displayed when there is a registration abroad claim;
• If not all goods or services are classed, the checkbox acknowledgement must be selected in order proceed with adding the request to the cart;
• Confirmation emails are sent to the email address of the requestor.

Filing a new application –
Amend a previously filed application –

• The validation of the priority date now accounts for prescribed days on which deadlines are extended;
• The electronic representation file format type for a hologram mark or motion mark or a combination these two trademark types must be .mp4;
• The electronic representation file format type for a sound mark must be .mp3.

Amend a previously filed application –

• Confirmation emails are sent to the email address of the requestor;
• The address for service in Canada no longer appears as "Updated" on the submission form when no changes have been made.

What's Improved?

Filing a new application – Upon the submission of a new application via the eFiling system by a client, the following will occur automatically:

• the payment receipt is stored in the client's history of transactions;
• the application information is transferred into our internal database system;
• the application status is immediately formalized; and
• if the client has selected electronic as the mode of correspondence, the acknowledgement notice and client proof sheet are emailed within one business day (note: the confirmation email is no longer sent).

What's Improved?

• Amend a previously filed application – The latest e-Revised application, which was filed prior to the coming into force date of June 17, 2019, has been converted, so it is available for use in the e-Amend online application.

What's Improved?

Adjusted Renewal Fee –

For a renewed trademark with an effective renewal date on or after June 17, 2019, where an Adjusted Renewal Fee notice has not been sent, the client has the ability to pay for additional classes. Please note that:

• if the Goods/Services have Nice Classes, the number of unique Nice classes (excluding the base class) will be used to establish the default number of classes for payment purposes. The client can choose to change the number of classes.
• if not all the Goods/Services have Nice Classes, the client may enter the number of additional classes they wish to submit a payment for and the fee will be calculated based on this number of classes.

What's Fixed?

E-Renewal

• Upon submission of a renewal by a third party via the e-Renewal service, the submission was completed on the e-Renewal service side but not transferred correctly to the Trademark internal system. The issue has now been fixed and all transactions have been transferred. Clients who have experienced the issue can expect to receive renewal related correspondence.

What's Improved?

• Adjustment of fees for trademark online requests -The online services now reflect periodic fee adjustments including displaying of fee amounts for services selected and payment processing.
• Validation of fees when submitting cart transactions – The online cart now validates the transaction fee amounts pursuant to the annual fee adjustment.

The following messages will be displayed if the fee amounts have been adjusted since the item was included in the cart are:

• When attempting payment: 
  • "Your transaction could not be completed as the fee amount required for one or more items has changed since they were first added to the cart. We invite you to review those items and proceed with the payment. For more information, or to find out the exact amount of a fee, please consult the list of fees available on CIPO's website."
• In the cart:
  • "Please note that the fee amount required for one or more items has changed since they were first added to the cart. We invite you to review those items and proceed with the payment. For more information, or to find out the exact amount of a fee, please consult the list of fees available on CIPO's website."

What's Improved?

eRegistration –
eRenewal -

• Modernized trademark renewal and registration certificates

What's Fixed?

E-Renewal

• Upon the submission of a renewal request by a third party via the e-Renewal service, the page was not displaying the navigation buttons permitting to "Save and add to cart" or to "Return to renewal search". The issue is now fixed.

What's Fixed?

eRegistration – A due date will appear for applications where the status is "Allowed", "Default-Allowed", "Registration Pending" and "Default-Registration Pending".

eRenewal –

• A renewal transaction status will remain as "In Process" until all the documents are generated;
• The text regarding partial renewal will only appear if a file is eligible for a partial renewal.

What's Fixed?

Adjusted Renewal Fee – The Adjusted Renewal Fee application is now taking into account the designated days, when validating the "Due Date" of the Adjusted Renewal Fee Notice. The system will adjust the "Due Date" in the event where the original "Due Date" is a day designated by the Registrar.

What's New?

• eRenewal – Automated processing of renewals;
• eRegistration – The system will verify if an application is part of a divisional family and if a registration fee required.

What's Improved?

• eRenewal – Upon the submission of a renewal request via the eRenewal system by a client, the following will occur automatically:
  • the payment receipt is stored in the history of transactions;
  • if the request is for a partial renewal, the goods or services being renewed will be listed on the payment receipt;
  • the following documents will be emailed within one business day:
    • Renewal Acknowledgement;
    • Renewal Certificate;
    • Registration Page.
• If a trademark agent submits a renewal request, additional emails can be provided in which to receive the acknowledgement. If additional emails are present a copy of the renewal acknowledgement being sent to the requestor will be sent to those other email addresses;
• If a client who is not an agent submits the request, only one email address can be provided;
• If the renewal requestor is not the owner nor the agent the following will apply, the renewal acknowledgement notice will be printed to be mailed:
  • for the agent, if present and they are not the requestor;
  • for the Owner if they are not the requestor.

What's New?

• CIPO added common status descriptors to its online Canadian Trademarks Database, which are a set of icons cooperatively developed by the TM5, a framework through which five intellectual property offices namely, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) exchange information on TM-related matters, and undertake cooperative projects for their mutual benefit, and for the interests of their respective TM filers and registrants.
• These descriptions and icons create a more harmonized and user-friendly online search experience for trademark users around the world, indicating the status of the application or registration at CIPO
• For more detailed information, see the Online Database glossary.

What's Improved?

• Divisional application and original application relationships are now more accessible on both the trademark details page and the search results listing;
• New header added in the trademark details page for geographical indications (GI) called "GI Translations".

What's Fixed?

• Special character "<" permitted in the search.

What's Improved?

• Wild Card Searches
• Upper and Lower Case Searches
• International Searches

What's Fixed?

• Grid View
• Section 9 Mapping
• Search Spinning Wheel
• Disclaimer Location

Transition to Standard ST.96

Transition to Standard ST.96As of June 17, 2019, the Trademarks Branch will adopt the World Intellectual Property Office's recommended data Standard ST.96, the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) for the purpose of filing, publishing, processing, and exchanging of information. As well, the ST.96 Standard will be the only accepted format for the purpose of uploading a previously saved application as a new application and the HTML structure will no longer be supported.

To facilitate the adoption of the XML format, CIPO will put in place a HTML to XML format converter. This tool will be available from here as of June 17, 2019.

Mapping documents

For your convenience, we are providing you with the mapping documents relating to Standard ST.96.

Please note that these files are provided as is and cannot be provided in an accessible format due to the nature of the content. For assistance, please contact our Client Service Centre.

• XML sample file populated with data (XML document 6 KB)
• Mapping document describes how to map HTML fields to XML elements (Excel document 15 KB)
• HTML sample file that contains hidden data fields (HTM document 81 KB)
• XML schema compliance with ST.96 standard (ZIP file 83 KB)