Canada Federal Court Refuses to Import US Fraud Doctrine into Canadian Trademark Law

The Canadian Trademark Blog reports here that the Federal Court in Canada "recently made clear that Canadian law does not recognize a rule equivalent to the U.S. doctrine of fraud on the trademark office, pursuant to which any material misstatement in the processing of a registration renders the entire resulting registration void."


Ron Coleman, at his Likelihood of Confusion blog (here), is so pleased with the Canadian decision that he seems almost ready to move north: "is it too much to hope that Canada’s approach will cool some fevered thinking on 'fraud' next time around here, too?"

Text and Photograph Copyright John L. Welch 2006, 2009.