General Information for Associates

1. In order to obtain a filing date in Canada, no document need be signed by the applicant. In every case, we as agents can sign all necessary papers required for a filing date. We shall be pleased to provide copies of requisite formal documents upon request, but most of them can most easily be prepared on our office computer and filed directly by ourselves on the applicant's behalf.

2. It is possible for our Vancouver and Victoria offices to effect same-day filing of applications and of prosecution-related documents in the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Indeed, because these two offices on Canada's west coast enjoy a 3-hour time zone advantage relative to central Canada, we can file patent and trademark applications, amendments, etc. 3 hours later than can be done in Ottawa, Toronto or Montreal.

Canadian intellectual property law is generally parallel to the intellectual property law in other countries, but has a number of features that are not common to all other countries.

For example, the United States has a "first to invent" patent system, whereas Canada has a "first to file" system. Regardless of who in fact was the first inventor for a given invention, the first applicant to file a patent application in the Canadian Patent Office to protect such invention will be granted the patent.

Canada's trademark system is primarily "use"-based; registration gives a number of important additional rights beyond those common-law rights generated by use, but use is a prerequisite to registration. This is in contrast to the law of many civil-law countries in which rights derive primarily from registration, and often registration can be obtained without use of the trademark.

Canada's copyright law is in general parallel to the law of most countries subscribing to the Berne Convention on copyright. Again, however, there are a number of characteristics of Canadian law that do not coincide with those of some other countries. For example, Canada's "fair dealing" defence to infringement is markedly different from the U.S. "fair use" defence.

Our practice includes the foregoing three fields of law as well as the law relating to designs, computer software, technology transfer, franchising and licensing, Internet law and miscellaneous intellectual property law such as plant breeders' rights, protection of semiconductor topographies, etc.