doing business in canada - Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

Registration grants an exclusive right to make, sell, rent, license or import for trade or business the designapplied to any article for which it is registered for a period of ten years. Once a design has been registered, itmay also be eligible for protection under patent, trade-mark or copyright legislation. An industrial designregistration protects not only the specific design registered, but also any design not differing from it.The registration of an industrial design is much less costly than obtaining a patent and can usually be obtainedwithin six to twelve months. However, no registration can be obtained if the application is filed more than twelvemonths after making the design public or offering it for commercial use. This includes distributing samples of anarticle bearing the design, selling or exhibiting such articles for sale, publishing the design in advertising orother printed material of any sort, or public use of articles bearing the design.Most countries have signed the Paris Convention. This international treaty allows the applicant of a design toclaim priority in respect of an earlier filed design application. Applications filed in a country where the ParisConvention applies, within six months of the filing date of the original application, are treated as though theywere filed on the original filing date.OTHER FORMS OF PROTECTIONCertain other specialized intellectual property rights are provided for in other federal statutes, including thePlant Breeders' Rights Act and the Integrated Circuit Topography Act.E-COMMERCECanada has taken initiatives to create a legal and regulatory infrastructure that fosters the growth of e-businessand Internet activity, including increasing Canada's e-government capabilities, enacting federal and provinciallegislation concerning privacy protection and electronic transactions and pursuing a wide range of regulatorypolicy initiatives.All of the provinces of Canada and one territory have passed electronic commerce enabling legislation in orderto normalize the legal rules applicable to documentary communication, irrespective of the medium used. Thislegislation usually addresses issues related to electronic document equivalency and reliability, digital signaturesand electronic record creation, maintenance and retention. In addition to provincial legislation, the federalgovernment has enacted the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act ("PIPEDA"), which,among other things, deals with electronic documents and governs the rules applicable to the use of "electronicalternatives… where federal laws contemplate the use of paper to record or communicate information ortransactions". PIPEDA also deals with data protection and privacy, as is discussed further below.As long as the general legal principles of contract formation are adhered to, laws in Canada concerning thecreation of contractual obligations are generally media-neutral. However, legal issues may arise with regard towhether enforceable contracts can be formed through such on-line contracting methods as "click-wrap" or"browse-wrap" agreements. Businesses should consult their legal advisors before putting into place such on-linecontracting methods so as to ensure that they comply with the requirements of an enforceable contract underCanadian law.Advertising on the Internet is subject to the provisions of the CA, which impose a dual criminal and civiladjudicative regime (see the Competition Law section of this guide). In addition, other statutes, such as the Foodand Drugs Act, provincial consumer protection legislation, and, in Québec, the Charter of the French Language,provide specific restrictions on the content and style of an advertisement in relation to certain classes or typesof products. For example, under the Charter of the French Language, the advertisements for products availablein Québec posted on the website of a company having an address or a physical establishment in Québec must be52 Industrial and Intellectual Property