I'm happy to start on legislative changes and then turn to my colleague from CIPO to talk a little bit about the administration of those trademark rights.
As I noted, as part of the intellectual property strategy, a number of changes were made to Canada's IP laws to ensure they were protected from potential abuses. One way that was done was actually to try to prevent trademarks from being exploited by individuals who might be doing what is sometimes called “trademark squatting” or actually sitting on a number of trademarks with no intention for their use.
One way we dealt with that was to try to put in place effective mechanisms to ensure that when there wasn't use, people were able to pursue those trademarks and strike them from the roll. It was also to ensure we had effective practices in place in terms of the fee structure associated with trademarks.
By and large, I think those cases and those changes are actually an important part of the changes, but I'll turn to my colleague from CIPO, who can talk a little bit about the current situation at CIPO on trademarks.