Current status: Closed
Opened on , and closed on .
About the consultation
The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is seeking feedback from the community of industrial design professionals and the Canadian public regarding a proposed change to the refusal and review process for industrial design examination decisions. The period for public comment is 60 days, between and .
Before a final refusal is issued on an application for the registration of an industrial design, an applicant who has failed to overcome the objections to registration raised by the examiner can request a review of the decision by the Patent Appeal Board. With a view to improving quality, consistency and timeliness in industrial design decisions, CIPO proposes to modify the current practice in order to entrust the review of examiner decisions to a subject matter expert from the policy and legislation group of the Trademarks and Industrial Designs Branch rather than to the Patent Appeal Board. Your observations will help determine whether this approach is appropriate or if it requires any changes.
How to participate
We value your views and would like to hear your comments and suggestions on the proposed change. In order to facilitate the public consultation process, CIPO prepared a discussion paper that describes the proposal in detail and includes key questions for discussion.
Participants are encouraged to read the discussion paper and are invited to submit all feedback by email before the end of the consultation period.
Discussion paper:
What we heard
- Submission from John Arnott, Association of Canadian Industrial Designers (PDF: 641 KB; 1 page)
- Submission from Andrew Montague, Suncor Energy (PDF: 944 KB; 2 pages)
- Submission from Daniel J. Staudt, Intellectual Property Owners Association (PDF: 156 KB, 3 pages)
- Submission from Natalie Raffoul, Brion Raffoul Intellectual Property Law (PDF: 170 KB, 5 pages)
Next steps
Building on our commitment to stakeholder engagement, we will continue to keep you informed as we move forward with an updated refusal and review process for industrial design decisions.
Related information
- Industrial Design Act, Industrial Design Regulations
- Industrial Design Office Practice Manual [Current]
(see section 18 for more information on refusals, review, and appeal) - Practice notice: Implementation of notices of possible refusal – Industrial Design [Archived]
- Industrial Design Office practice changes: Fact sheet [Archived]
Contact us
If you have any questions regarding these consultations or require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our Client Service Centre.
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We thank you for your time and interest.