Trademarks for Small Business

Smuglers LLP is a small law firm that specializes in providing top-quality Canadian and U.S. trademarks services to small Canadian businesses at reasonable prices. We are a one-stop shop for trademark searches, registrations and associated legal matters. Over 95% of our work deals with Canadian and U.S. trademarks. We've registered hundreds of trademarks over the past 10 years. Our information, service and prices are geared towards small business.


Popular Trademark Topics


The Cost of Trademark Registration

The government must be paid a total of $450, consisting of $250 for the application and $200 for the actual registration. In addition there are legal fees. According to the June 2009 fee survey by Canadian Lawyer, the range of fees for a simple Canadian trademark registration is $1,483 to $4,573, with an average of $1,950. Our fees are $1,125, which includes a comprehensive search.


Trademark Searches

Why do you a need a trademark search? Mostly to answer two questions:

  • Can You Use Your Trademark? Will you be sued for trademark infringement for either starting or continuing the use of your trademark?
  • Can You Register Your Trademark? Registering your trademark with the government gives you many advantages.

You can start by searching the internet and the official Canadian trademark registry yourself, using these links to free trademark searches. We offer a more comprehensive search and opinion that covers exact matches and confusingly similar trademarks on the registry, for $275.


Why Register a Trademark

You do not have to register your trademark with the government, but it gives you many advantages, including:

  • the exclusive right to use your mark across Canada;
  • more effective legal tools to prevent someone from trying to copy or imitate your mark;
  • an increase in the value of your business, because trademarks are considered an asset;
  • avoiding an expensive legal dispute if someone else registers your mark; and
  • easier franchising

Overview of the Trademark Registration Process

You apply to CIPO (the Canadian Intellectual Property Office) for registration of your trademark. It takes about 14-18 months between application and registration for a typical trademark. These are the normal stages:

  • Stage 1: Awaiting First Response From CIPO - After CIPO receives your application, it takes them about 8-12 months to do a review and get back to you with any objections.
  • Stage 2: Examiner's Report - If there are objections they usually involve descriptions of the wares and services, confusion with existing marks on the registry or descriptiveness. In our experience, CIPO raises an objection about 50% of the time. Our success rate in overcoming objections is over 95%. If there is an objection, it can take from 1-12 months to resolve.
  • Stage 3: Publication and Opposition - Your mark is then published in the weekly Trademark Journal, which lists all the trademarks CIPO believes qualify for registration. The public then has 2 months to object. This rarely happens. If someone does object, they must file a Statement of Opposition, which begins the Opposition Process. Even if there is no Opposition, this stage still takes about 6 months. If there is, it can take years to resolve.
  • Stage 4: Registration - You'll get a Notice of Allowance from CIPO saying they're ready to register your trademark once you've filed the final papers and paid them the necessary fee. This can be done in as little as 1 month.

Trademark Infringement

If you've received a "cease and desist" letter, then someone thinks you're infringing on their mark. You should respond to it, as it can have serious legal implications. Similarly, if you think someone is infringing your trademark, then you should do something about it or your rights may be jeopardized.