It isn’t obvious to look in a budget implementation bill for changes to trademark legislation. Yet that is what has happened this year with the tabling of Bill C-31 and there are more than cosmetic changes to the Trademarks Act.
For one thing, it’s no longer “trade-marks” but “trademarks”. That may be a small point but more significantly the registration period for trademarks is decreased from 15 years to 10. There are many other big changes which are nicely summarized by Rob Kittredge here. Even if you have a pending trademark you might have to take notice of these changes because your registration will probably be subject to the new rules.