An Act to amend the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

Short title: Combating Counterfeit Products Act Bill C-56 (41-1) Status: At consideration in committee in the House of Commons Type: House Government Bill Sponsor: Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry and Minister of State (Agriculture) (Mégantic—L'Érable) Latest stage: Second reading Legislative

summary <div>A Legislative

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summary is available.<br/><br/>On March 2013, the Minister of Industry and Minister of State (Agriculture) introduced Bill C-56,

An Act to amend the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (Combating Counterfeit Products Act), in the House of Commons and it was given first reading.<br/><br/>Counterfeit trademark goods, commonly described as “knock-offs,” closely resemble the legitimate product and bear an imitation or non-genuine trademark.

The retail value of counterfeit goods seized by the RCMP increased from $7.6 million in to $38 million in 2012.<br/><br/>Bill C-56 amends the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act to add new civil and criminal remedies and new border measures in both Acts, in order to strengthen the enforcement of copyright and trade-mark rights and to curtail commercial activity involving infringing copies and counterfeit trade-marked goods.

More specifically, it<br/><br/>• creates new civil causes of action with respect to activities that sustain commercial activity in infringing copies and counterfeit trade-marked goods;<br/>• creates new criminal offences for trade-mark counterfeiting that are analogous to existing offences in the Copyright Act;<br/>• creates new criminal offences prohibiting the possession or export of infringing copies or counterfeit trade-marked goods, packaging or labels;<br/>• enacts new border enforcement measures enabling customs officers to detain goods that they suspect infringe copyright or trade-mark rights and allowing them to share information relating to the detained goods with rights owners who have filed a request for assistance, in order to give the rights owners a reasonable opportunity to pursue a remedy in court;<br/>• exempts the importation and exportation of copies and goods by an individual for their personal use from the application of the border measures; and<br/>• adds the offences set out in the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act to the list of offences set out in the Criminal Code for the investigation of which police may seek judicial authorization to use a wiretap.<br/><br/>The enactment also amends the Trade-marks Act to, among other things, expand the scope of what can be registered as a trade-mark, allow the Registrar of Trade-marks to correct errors that appear in the trade-mark register, and streamline and modernize the trade-mark application and opposition process.</div> House of Commons — First reading: Completed (2013-03-01) House of Commons — Second reading: Completed (2013-06-12) House of Commons — Consideration in committee: No activity Full bill text is not included in the LEGISinfo JSON export.

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