On July 16, 2025, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) announced new practices related to trademark examination and the acceptance of recommendations for pre-approved goods and services.
Elimination of accelerated examination for domestic trademark applications
Since 2021, the CIPO has treated domestic trademark applications listing only acceptable or pre-approved goods and services from the Goods and Services Manual (the “Manual”) differently than those listing custom terms. Until recently, the former were examined on an accelerated basis, resulting in shorter wait times to examination, as Examiners do not need to validate pre-approved goods or services.
The CIPO has now announced that it will end this practice. Going forward, all domestic trademark applications will be placed in the same examination queue, regardless of whether they list only acceptable or pre-approved goods and services, custom terms, or a combination thereof. The CIPO anticipates that wait times to examination for all new trademark applications will soon reach just nine (9) months.
Accelerated examination was implemented in May 2021. It was introduced by the CIPO as part of a suite of measures—including efforts to issue fewer Examiners’ Reports prior to refusal, and to offer specific suggestions to overcome goods and services objections in the second and subsequent reports—intended to improve timeliness in examination and address a growing backlog due to “higher than anticipated filings of trademark applications” following Canada’s accession to the Madrid System and implementation of major amendments to Canada’s Trademarks Act that eliminated “use” as a prerequisite of registration.
At its height, the backlog resulted in wait times to examination of nearly 5 years. By February 2024, the wait times to examination in Canada ballooned to a staggering over 1,700 days, by far the longest in the world.
However, processing times for applications containing only acceptable or pre-approved terms were typically much shorter – only around 2.5 years. These faster processing times have incentivized applicants seeking to register their marks quickly to increasingly use only “pre-approved” goods and services from the Goods and Services Manual.
Formalization of process for suggesting pre-approved terms
In addition to its accelerating the examination of applications listing only acceptable or pre-approved terms, the CIPO has been informally accepting applicants’ suggestions for such terms for the past several years.
At the same time it announced an end to accelerated examination, the CIPO also announced that on July 23, 2025, it would publish (and indeed has now published) a new practice notice that formalizes the process for submitting recommendations of goods and services to be included in the Goods and Services Manual. The objective of this new, formalized process is to ensure that the Manual covers the widest possible variety of goods and services, including in highly specialized or new areas. The CIPO has indicated that its decision to accept or reject a recommended good or service will be communicated to the requestor within four (4) weeks of their submission.
How will the CIPO’s new practices affect my trademark application?
Now that the CIPO will no longer accelerate the examination of domestic trademark applications listing only acceptable or pre-approved goods and services from the Manual, all such applications will be processed in the order received (but so-called “expedited examination” remains an option in certain special circumstances described in the relevant Practice Notice).
When the CIPO was accelerating the examination of such applications, many applicants chose to use only acceptable or pre-approved terms from the Manual, to take advantage of the markedly shorter wait times, even if their preference may have been to file applications with custom terms.
The elimination of accelerated examination could change applicants’ behaviour in that regard, with some applicants choosing to file applications with custom terms that best reflect the goods or services with which they (intend to) use their marks. Furthermore, the CIPO’s announcement of a formal process for submitting recommendations of goods and services to be included in the Manual suggests an effort by the CIPO to ensure that the Manual remains relevant and up to date, and that applicants continue to be incentivized to use terms from the Manual in their applications.
Ultimately, tangible advantages of using only pre-approved terms are likely to remain. In many cases, using only pre-approved terms may well speed up the time to registration, as pre-approved terms should not attract any Examiners’ objections. If, as the CIPO anticipates, wait times to examination for all new trademark applications will soon reach just nine (9) months, an average application filed using only pre-approved terms and facing no other objections could reach registration within around a year of filing, a major and welcome change for applicants who have grown accustomed to a multi-year wait for first examination.
Should you have any questions on the CIPO’s new practices, how to best protect your trademark rights or any other trademark-related matters, please contact our Trademarks and Brand Protection Team.
The preceding is intended as a timely update on Canadian intellectual property and technology law. The content is informational only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. To obtain such advice, please communicate with our offices directly.