Yes, I think that determination would be made, and six years would provide a window for a contact to happen. But, for example, if someone has made a determination not to renew their trademark, then effectively that is a form of communication. They're signalling to CIPO that there is no value to that and they're not going to be renewing it. And, ditto, if they have not undertaken to proceed with the examination of a trademark, they are making an assessment and communicating to CIPO that there is no value to their proceeding. So in both cases, there is an implicit form of communication. But it would be prohibitive to go back to a number of files and seek to have either a document or a signal that in fact they are not of value to the individual any more. But six years, I think, is the objective of providing that sort of a window if a rights holder were to determine two or three years later that they wanted to come forward. But there's a point at which, just from the sheer desire to want to limit the number of records you're maintaining on an ongoing basis and that cost to the crown, you need to declare that they're dead.
On December 2nd, 2013. See this statement in context.