The Trademarks Opposition Board (TMOB) of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) recently integrated Decisia to its official website. Decisions pursuant to the Trade-marks Act and Trade-marks Regulations rendered since 1984 are now made available to the general public in both HTML and PDF formats and made easy to search. In addition to the usual Decisia search fields, TMOB decisions can be searched by trademark name, by member/hearing officer name, as well as by registration number:
Legal professionals interested in keeping updated about the latest developments in the field of trademark oppositions may subscribe to the TMOB Decisia mailing list in order to receive all recent decisions within 24 hours of their release.
The TMOB hears two types of proceedings: opposition proceedings (objection to the registration of a trademark in Canada) and section 45 proceedings (provides a means whereby a registration for a trademark may be expunged). The responsibilities of the TMOB with respect to opposition and section 45 proceedings include: assessing the initial request; corresponding with both parties; ruling on various interlocutory matters (opposition proceedings only); scheduling and conducting oral hearings; and rendering decisions.