Fee-l the Rush: Canada’s Trademark Application Fees are increasing!

By John Yiokaris and Lauren Huxtable

Trademarks are some of the most valuable intellectual property that businesses may own. Do you have a unique trademark or design mark associated with your products or services that you’ve been considering registering? Now is the time!

Effective January 1, 2024, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) will increase most of their fees by 25%. Annual fee adjustments on certain CIPO fees will also come into effect.  

Prior to the implementation of the regulatory changes allowing for this significant 25% increase, CIPO’s fees were already scheduled to increase on January 1, 2024, to reflect the economic changes over the last 12 months.

For 2024, a one-time 25% fee increase will also be applied to most CIPO fees (including trademark application fees) along with the annual CPI adjustment. The new fee amounts will be effective January 1, 2024, and are listed on CIPO’s fee pages. For more details on the increases to trademark fees in particular, you can visit https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-intellectual-property-office/en/trademarks/fees-trademarks.

For all fees subject to an adjustment:

• If payment is received before January 1, 2024, you will need to pay the prescribed fee for the current year (i.e. the 2023 fees).
• If payment is received on or after January 1, 2024, you will need to pay the adjusted higher prescribed fee for next year (i.e. the 2024 fees).

For example, if you file an application for the registration of a trademark but a filing date cannot be granted because the prescribed application fee was not paid, the amount you need to pay will depend on the date on which the Registrar receives the payment of the entire prescribed fee. If the payment is received after January 1, 2024,  you will need to pay the (higher) adjusted prescribed fee for the new year. Similarly, the amount required for any additional Nice classes also depends on the date on which the payment is received, even if the prescribed fee for the first class of goods or services to which the application relates was paid prior to the annual adjustment. If the payment is received after January 1, 2024, you will need to pay the adjusted prescribed fee for the new year.

As everyone who has interacted with the Canadian trademark process knows, applications that do not need to respond to any examiner reports or which are not opposed by any third parties currently take approximately 36 to 48 months to become registered. CIPO is funded entirely by fee revenues from its services. By increasing their fees, CIPO intends to address the critical capacity and technological investments needed to provide improved services. Whether this translates into faster overall processing times remains to be seen.

If you would like to get ahead of these fee hikes and start your trademarking process today, Sotos LLP is happy to help. At Sotos LLP, we have acted for hundreds of trademark owners in every aspect of protecting their intellectual property for more than 40 years. We have extensive knowledge of intellectual property issues, and regularly act in the procurement and licensing of trademarks, as well as in defending our clients’ trademarks rights and opposing trademark applications on behalf of our clients. Please contact John Yiokaris at jiokaris@sotos.ca 416-930-3609 or Lauren Huxtable at lhuxtable@sotos.ca 416-572-7318 to discuss your intellectual property and trademark needs.