INVENTORIUM

What is a trademark?

It is a symbol or a drawing or a combination of these elements which serve to distinguish the products or services offered by one company on the market from others. Representing the producer’s reputation, the trademark is regarded as very important intellectual property. The process and follow-up for a trademark application are the same in the U.S. and Canada with the exception of the duration. In Canada a registered trademark gives exclusive right for 15 years and is renewable for every further 15 year period as long as the trademark is always in use. In the United States this exclusive right is for 10 years and renewable every 10 year period thereafter.
Process for Registering a Trademark

Preliminary Search and Registration
Canada: $985 + taxes
United States: $1485 + taxes

This includes the preliminary search, the registering of the trademark, the taxes required by the patent offices as well as the follow-up of your file. The preliminary search will determine whether the trademark you wish to register is already in use or if it could lead to confusion with another trademark already registered.

The first step to start the process is to order your file opening kit which includes our Official Disclosure form as well as a pre-signed Confidentiality Agreement which guarantees that your file is treated with total confidentiality.

COMPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Following the registration of your trademark, the trademark offices (Canadian and/or American depending on your decision) will perform a search in the trademark archives to see if there is any other mark that conflicts with yours. It will then be examined to see if it complies with the requirements of “Trademark Law”.

This request will then be published in the “Trademark Newspaper”. The trademark office gives the necessary time allowance for the public to put up oppositions to the request, if any. Whoever wishes can, with the payment of $750, deposit a statement of opposition to the registrar. After examination of the proof from one or more parties, the registrar accepts or rejects the opponent’s request.
If nobody deposits a statement of opposition, the mark is accepted. A $200 tax for the official registration is then collected. You will receive your official registration certificate a few months later. In the United States, this registration tax $375US.