In a global economy that is increasingly focused on innovation and intangible assets, CIPO must ensure that Canada's IP system is modern and connected. CIPO is active on the international stage, advancing Canada's domestic and international interests, and is attentive to the trends that shape the future of our IP system. We foster innovation by making it easier for businesses and innovators to protect and realize the benefits of their creations in Canada and abroad and by making IP data and research available to innovators.
Connecting Canada's IP system to the world
Five years ago, Canada began the process of acceding to 5 international IP treaties to connect Canada's IP system to the world. In 2019–2020, CIPO implemented 4 of these treaties, namely the Madrid Protocol, the Singapore Treaty, the Nice Agreement and the PLT. These treaties—along with the Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, which came into force in November 2018—make it easier for Canadian innovators and businesses to acquire high-quality IP rights in multiple countries and markets and for non-Canadians to file for IP protection in Canada. These new conditions will benefit Canadian businesses as they look to enter or expand their presence in international markets. They will also attract foreign investments to Canada and facilitate international competitiveness and trade.
The implementation of these IP treaties required amendments to the Industrial Design Act, the Trademarks Act and the Patent Act, and the adoption of new Industrial Design Regulations, Trademarks Regulations and Patent Rules—changes that represent some of the most important reforms to Canada's IP regime in decades. Canada's newly modernized IP framework will allow us to keep pace with leading international standards and benchmarks and will provide important benefits for businesses.
CIPO has already observed significant uptake of the new treaty provisions. In 2019–2020, Canada was designated in over 1,845 international industrial design applications containing over 12,021 designs. On our first day as a member of the Madrid Protocol, Canada was designated in 96 international trademark applications, the highest single-day total for any member country. By March 31, 2020, Canada had been designated in over 15,527 international trademark applications filed through the Madrid System. As an Office of origin, CIPO received 453 applications for international registration.
CIPO's path to IP treaty implementation
Hague Agreement
The Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs is an international registration system that allows applicants to file for industrial design protection in 90 countries through a single international application filed with WIPO, using a single currency.
Description of figure CIPO's path to IP treaty implementation
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Amendments to the Industrial Design Act (2014)
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Amendments to the Industrial Design Regulations and public consultations on draft regulations (2017)
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Canada Gazette process (2018)
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Deposit of instrument of accession at WIPO (2018)
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Coming into force November 5, 2018
Madrid Protocol, Singapore Treaty and Nice Agreement
The Madrid Protocol is an international registration system that allows applicants to file for trademark protection in 122 countries through a single international application filed with WIPO, using a single currency.
The Singapore Treaty is a trademark law treaty that aims to make national trademark registration systems more user friendly and reduce business compliance costs for trademark owners.
The Nice Agreement governs an international system used to categorize goods and services for the purpose of registering trademarks.
Description of figure Madrid Protocol, Singapore Treaty and Nice Agreement
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Amendments to the Trade-marks Act (2014)
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Amendments to the Trademarks Regulations and public consultations on draft regulations (2017)
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Canada Gazette process (2018)
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Deposit of instrument of accession at WIPO (2019)
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Coming into force June 17, 2019
Patent Law Treaty
The Patent Law Treaty aims to harmonize and streamline patent administrative procedures among national IP offices. It addresses issues such as the provision of notifications to avoid the loss of rights, representation before the IP office and red tape reduction.
Description of figure Patent Law Treaty
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Amendments to the Patent Act (2014–2015)
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Amendments to the Patent Rules and public consultations on draft rules (2017–2018)
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Canada Gazette process (I and II) (2018–2019)
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Deposit of instrument of accession at WIPO (2019)
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Coming into force October 30, 2019
Collaborating with our international partners
From September 30 to October 9, 2019, CIPO led a Canadian delegation at the Fifty-Ninth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO (General Assemblies) in Geneva. This provided a platform for CIPO to advance Canada's domestic and international IP interests within the context of major WIPO governance decisions and to engage with our international counterparts in bilateral and multilateral meetings.
As a member of the Vancouver Group—comprising the IP offices of Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom—we shared information and experiences on issues that are common and relevant to our mid-sized IP offices. We also participated in a plenary session with other member states of Group B+, seeking to promote and facilitate progress on the international harmonization of substantive patent law. We reached an agreement to review the goals and objectives of harmonization and identify related initiatives that might offer maximum benefit to users and offices.
Over the past few years, CIPO joined economists from other national IP offices to draft and publish the Guidelines to using evidence from research to support policymaking, which were launched at the General Assemblies and are an important milestone in promoting evidence-based policy-making.
On the margins of the General Assemblies, we met with members of the International Trademark Association Expert Group for the "IP Office of the Future" project. The Expert Group is composed of 7 current and 5 former heads of IP offices, including CIPO's Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trademarks and Chief Executive Officer. The project will culminate with the development of an independent report that presents a thought-provoking and holistic reflection on what an IP office might look like in the future.
In July 2019, CIPO participated in the 30th session of WIPO's Program and Budget Committee (PBC). The purpose of the PBC is to ensure that WIPO has the necessary resources to deliver on its objectives. In 2017, Canada was elected as one of the 53 PBC member states for the period from October 2017 to October 2021.
CIPO is an active member of WIPO's Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP), which seeks to develop and enhance the global IP system. During the 24th session of the CDIP, which was held in Geneva in November 2019, the committee unanimously adopted a project proposal from Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, Poland and the United Kingdom to develop a handbook and other reference materials to support member states in the elaboration of project proposals for the consideration of the CDIP.
CIPO's Commissioner of Patents, Registrar of Trademarks and Chief Executive Officer, Johanne Bélisle, and the Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, Daren Tang, during a bilateral meeting at WIPO's General Assemblies. In March 2020, Mr. Tang won the nomination for the post of Director General of WIPO and is scheduled to take office on October 1, 2020.
In September 2020, the term of office of WIPO's current Director General will come to an end. Canada has a strong interest in the election of the new Director General, and CIPO—along with other Government of Canada departments—has engaged with candidates and other like-minded countries in assessing the candidates' qualifications. WIPO's Director General is an important figure in multilateral negotiations and is highly involved in guiding developments to the international IP filing system. CIPO was a member of Canada's delegation to the WIPO Coordination Committee responsible for the election and exercised its right to vote in March 2020.
CIPO is a signatory to 14 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with other countries and organizations that promote cooperation and improve the functionality of the international IP system. Through these MOUs, CIPO fosters and maintains bilateral relations with our international counterparts to promote collaboration, strengthen the Canadian IP regime and enhance Canada's position in the international IP ecosystem. In January 2020, we renewed our MOU with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property.
The Intellectual Property Rights Experts Group (IPEG) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation provides a forum for the exchange of information and best practices on IP administration and policy in the Asia-Pacific Region. During the IPEG meeting held in Santiago, Chile, in February 2019, CIPO and other members of the Canadian delegation gave presentations on a number of topics, including Canada's accession to international IP treaties, Canada's IP strategy, and economic research and trends.
Annual MIA under the PCT
CIPO is designated by WIPO as one of 23 International Searching Authorities and International Preliminary Examining Authorities under the PCT. In February 2020, CIPO hosted the annual Meeting of International Authorities (MIA) under the PCT and its associated Quality Subgroup, during which initiatives that shape the future of the PCT and improve the quality of international search and examination reports were discussed.
CIPO-WIPO Executive Workshop
From June 3 to 7, 2019, CIPO hosted the 22nd Executive Workshop on the Application of Management Techniques in the Delivery of Intellectual Property Services. We welcomed representatives—half of whom were women—from 12 IP offices around the world, including delegates from Botswana, Cuba, Egypt, Gambia, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, as well as a Ghanaian national representing the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO).
Since 1997, CIPO has organized, in collaboration with WIPO, an annual executive workshop for senior IP officials from developing and least developed countries. This workshop seeks to strengthen the governance capacity of IP offices by offering tools and techniques to face future challenges as well as providing a first-hand experience of the nature and scope of Canada's IP expertise. The 2019 CIPO-WIPO Executive Workshop was organized around the theme of Women in IP, sparking discussion on the role of women in innovation and IP.
In November 2019, CIPO was invited to share its expertise at the ARIPO's Forty-Third Session of the Administrative Council and Council of Ministers in Liberia. CIPO presented on the Government of Canada's work to promote IP and innovation and facilitated a design-thinking workshop on developing an effective national IP strategy.
The ARIPO's Forty-Third Session of the Administrative Council and Council of Ministers in Liberia
Connecting with our domestic stakeholders
By maintaining a dialogue with domestic stakeholders, CIPO gives clients an opportunity to provide feedback and contribute to the strengthening of Canada's IP framework—a framework that promotes innovation and economic development.
In September 2019, CIPO participated in the 93rd Annual Conference of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada and presented an update on CIPO's projects and activities. We took part in a number of fora and roundtable discussions with stakeholders that represent the interests of IP rights holders in Canada, exchanging information, ideas and points of view on improving Canada's IP framework.
Advancing IP research
CIPO contributes to innovation by providing innovators and policy-makers with the latest IP research and trends. The IP Canada Report is an annual publication that presents trends in IP usage by Canadians, both in Canada and around the world, and research conducted by CIPO and other partner organizations. This year's edition examined the relationship between IP awareness and use and the business activities of SMEs. As part of our annual industry snapshot, the report also examined patenting in agri-food and fish processing.
Geographical clusters of patenting related to processing in the fishing industry (IP Canada Report 2019)
CIPO's IP analytics capacity continues to evolve. Over the past year, our data scientists focused on finding efficiencies by automating data cleansing and sorting tasks, which previously required manual intervention. For example, they automated the creation of geographic maps of patenting activity across Canada. The robustness of our methodology in locating institutions and inventors based on the information included in the patent data has improved such that we can accurately determine whether a specific entity falls within a census metropolitan area as determined by Statistics Canada. This is only one way we are applying data science to improve our IP analytics reports to give decision makers a broad, yet accurate perspective of the patent landscape so they can understand the who, what and where of innovative activity in specific targeted sectors.
In March 2020, we partnered with the Conference Board of Canada to co-host the third annual IP research workshop. This full-day workshop focused on research around the themes of IP, scaling up and innovation. The event attracted over 150 participants from federal departments and agencies, other IP offices, the private sector, leading law firms and academia.
As part of Budget 2018, Statistics Canada administered a survey on IP awareness and use. CIPO, in collaboration with our partners at ISED, provided valuable input to the survey, which sought to identify how Canadians—including groups that have traditionally been less likely to use IP, such as women and Indigenous entrepreneurs—understand and use IP. The results of the survey will help improve targeted education and awareness initiatives to better meet the needs of Canadians.