Trademarks Act

Marginal note:When trade-mark registrable

• 12 (1) Subject to section 13, a trade-mark is registrable if it is not

  • (a) a word that is primarily merely the name or the surname of an individual who is living or has died within the preceding thirty years;

  • (b) whether depicted, written or sounded, either clearly descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive in the English or French language of the character or quality of the wares or services in association with which it is used or proposed to be used or of the conditions of or the persons employed in their production or of their place of origin;

  • (c) the name in any language of any of the wares or services in connection with which it is used or proposed to be used;

  • (d) confusing with a registered trade-mark;

  • (e) a mark of which the adoption is prohibited by section 9 or 10;

  • (f) a denomination the adoption of which is prohibited by section 10.1;

  • (g) in whole or in part a protected geographical indication, where the trade-mark is to be registered in association with a wine not originating in a territory indicated by the geographical indication;

  • (h) in whole or in part a protected geographical indication, where the trade-mark is to be registered in association with a spirit not originating in a territory indicated by the geographical indication; and

  • (i) subject to subsection 3(3) and paragraph 3(4)(a) of the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act, a mark the adoption of which is prohibited by subsection 3(1) of that Act.

• Marginal note:Idem

  (2) A trade-mark that is not registrable by reason of paragraph (1)(a) or (b) is registrable if it has been so used in Canada by the applicant or his predecessor in title as to have become distinctive at the date of filing an application for its registration.