We're reinforcing the concept of use, absolutely.
We're eliminating a paper burden. It's a form that is not used by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. It's also not used by the courts if there is a dispute over whether a trademark is actually being used on the marketplace. In that case, what actually gets brought forward as evidence is whether or not a mark is being used in the marketplace.
In terms of some of the letters and some of the comments that were just raised, I'll take one example that I think goes to some of the fears and the arguments that have been raised. On the domain name case, it's being portrayed as “this is the same as a domain name”. The fact is that the registry is not going to be wiped out the day after we join the Madrid protocol. Everybody who has trademark rights in Canada will have those rights. In a domain name situation, you have a new dot-whatever that's been created, and you have no property rights assigned with any big name. Everybody knows the value of the big name, so there is a free-for-all that happens in that case.
We're not at all taking the registry down. I think it's an indication of the type of fearful argument that's been brought forward. All three of the amendments, if I can make a comment on them, essentially reinforce the status quo. The government has made a decision in terms of acceding to Madrid, and we're the ninety-third country in the world to do this. This is not a new system. It's a tried system that has brought benefits to every single economy and every single country that has joined it, and that is the policy reason for Canada joining this.