Canadian Intellectual Property Office Eliminates Accelerated Examination Procedure for Trademark Applications

On July 16, 2025, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) announced the cancellation of the accelerated review procedure for trademark registration applications and began accepting recommendations for pre-approved goods and services.

Since 2021, CIPO has treated domestic trademark applications that list pre-approved goods and services in the Goods and Services Manual differently from applications that list custom terms. Currently, the former are examined more quickly because examiners do not need to verify pre-approved goods or services.

But CIPO has now announced that it will end this practice. All domestic trademark applications will be placed in the same examination queue, regardless of whether they list pre-approved goods and services, custom terms, or a combination of both. CIPO expects that the examination waiting time for all new trademark applications will soon be reduced to 9 months.

At the height of CIPO's backlog, trademark examination wait times approached five years, with some trademarks taking as long as 1,700 days. However, applications containing "accepted" or "pre-approved" terms typically took only 2.5 years to process. These faster processing times have encouraged applicants to increasingly use "pre-approved" goods and services to expedite registration.

In conjunction with the end of the accelerated examination process, CIPO also announced the implementation of a new procedure for submitting proposals for goods and services to be included in the Goods and Services Manual. This new procedure is intended to ensure that the Manual covers the widest possible range of goods and services, including those in highly specialized or emerging areas.