File a new or amended trademark or certification mark application through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office Trademarks e-Filing service: the filing-date requirements, the My Canada Business Account sign-in, the 2026 online fees, and the examination, publication, opposition, and registration steps that follow.
Applies in: CA
The Trademarks e-Filing service is the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) online service for filing a new or amended trademark or certification mark application. Once you have paid the application fee, you immediately receive your application number. This guide covers the trademarks service only. It is a different service, with different application contents and different steps, from the patent e-filing service and the copyright e-filing service, which handle inventions and works respectively. This guide describes the published filing process. It does not advise whether a mark can be registered, what goods or services wording to claim, or whether to hire an agent.
CIPO suggests five preparatory steps before you start an application:
The database search and the Manual check are the two steps that most directly affect whether the application proceeds smoothly. The Manual gives the accepted terms for describing goods and services, and the class or classes those goods and services fall under drive the fee, because CIPO charges per class. Hiring an agent is optional. If you do hire one, the agent is a registered trademark agent licensed with the College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents, and an active agent links a CIPO username, not a GCKey username, to submit transactions as a trademark agent in the Trademarks and Trademarks Opposition Board online services.
A trademark application that has the following will receive a filing date and an application number:
Prepare all five before you open the filing form. The representation or description is the mark itself as CIPO will examine it, so check that the drawing or description matches the mark you intend to use, including any colour claim. The goods or services statement should use the accepted terms from the Goods and Services Manual, grouped by class, because the number of classes sets the fee. If any of the five items is missing, the application does not meet the filing requirements and CIPO does not assign a filing date.
Log in to the Trademark e-filing application on the secure Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada server. You need a My Canada Business Account to use the application. If you do not have an account, visit the login page and follow the steps to create one. The patent and copyright e-filing services use the same account type, but each service has its own filing form, so open the trademarks form, not another service's form, for this filing.
Complete the application with the five items from section 2, then pay. You can pay fees by credit card or by deposit account. Once you have paid the application fee, you immediately receive your application number. Keep that number, and the filing receipt, for everything that follows: the amendment service requires a CIPO filing receipt, and CIPO asks you to quote your application number when you contact them about a specific application.
Amended applications use the same service, with one restriction. Use the amendment online service only if you have already filed a trademark or certification mark application and have a CIPO filing receipt. Certain amendments are not allowed, so check which changes are allowed by reading section 35 of the Trademarks Regulations before filing an amended application. You may have to file an amended application after receiving an examination report, and the amendment step is part of answering that report, described in section 5.
An examiner may also contact you by phone about small fixes. Under the telephone amendments practice in effect since February 19, 2021, an examiner might call to ask for verbal permission to amend the application, for example to add a missing disclaimer, or to ask you to send an electronic revised application to correct a typographical or punctuation error in the statement of goods or services, fix an incorrect Nice classification, or supply a clearer visual representation of the mark.
The fees for trademarks page lists all amounts in Canadian dollars. For an application for the registration of a trademark, if the application and the fee are submitted online through CIPO's website, the 2026 fee is $491.06 for the first class of goods or services to which the application relates, and $149.04 for each additional class as of the filing date. If the application and fee are submitted through any other means, the 2026 fee is $640.10 for the first class, with the same $149.04 for each additional class.
Fees adjust each January 1 under the Service Fees Act, and the amount you must pay depends on the date on which the fee is received by the Registrar, not the date on which the service was originally requested. The same page already publishes the 2027 fees: $499.41 for the first class online and $151.57 for each additional class, and $650.98 for the first class through any other means. If payment is received before January 1, you pay the current-year fee; if it is received on or after January 1, you pay the adjusted fee for the new year, including for any additional classes. Check the fee page on the day you file, and do not carry a prior year's figure forward.
Two later fees are worth noting at filing time. Renewal of a trademark registration, if the request and fee are submitted online, costs $595.06 for the first class and $185.49 for each additional class in 2026. An application for an extension of time under section 47 of the Trademarks Act costs $150.00 in 2026 and in 2027. For applications with a filing date after June 17, 2019, there is no separate registration fee step: CIPO issues the certificate of registration once the application reaches registration, as described in section 5.
CIPO processes an application in five steps: formalities, examination, publication, opposition, and registration.
At the formalities step, if the filed application meets the filing requirements, including payment of the application fee, CIPO assigns a filing date and an application number, opens a file, and enters the application in the Canadian Trademarks Database and other databases run by outside companies, labelled Formalized. CIPO sends a formal filing acknowledgement and a proof sheet detailing the information included in the application within seven business days from receipt if filed online, and within 20 business days in any other case. Read the proof sheet carefully and report any errors or omissions immediately.
At examination, a trademark examiner reviews the application and determines whether it can be approved for advertisement in the Trademarks Journal. If there are doubts, the examiner lets you know and you can respond. Simple problems that can be fixed verbally are handled by phone. More complex problems arrive as an examiner's report, and you have six months to respond. If your response does not satisfy the examiner, you receive a letter stating that the application has been refused and explaining why, and you have the right to appeal to the Federal Court of Canada. If the application is approved, CIPO sends a formal notice of approval.
At publication, CIPO publishes the approved application in the Trademarks Journal, published weekly on the CIPO website. The application should appear in the Journal approximately two weeks after approval. Within two months of the advertisement, others can oppose the application. CIPO does not contact you at this stage unless the application is opposed, in which case the Trademarks Opposition Board notifies you in writing, and CIPO waits until the matter is settled before continuing work on the application.
At opposition, if someone opposes the application, CIPO sends you a copy of the statement of opposition. If you want to contest it, you have two months to file a counter statement and serve a copy on the opponent. Both sides then have a chance to file evidence and written arguments and to make submissions at an oral hearing. If the opposition is withdrawn or is not successful, the application moves forward to allowance. If the opposition is successful, the application could be totally or partially refused.
At registration, for an application filed after June 17, 2019, there is nothing else to do and CIPO issues the certificate of registration, mailed to you. For an application filed before June 17, 2019, a registration fee is still required, and CIPO sends a notice to pay it. The fee page lists that pre-June 17, 2019 registration fee separately; this guide does not state the figure, because it does not apply to a new filing.
For correspondence with the Registrar on trademark topics, use the e-General Correspondence service as an alternative to fax or postal mail. Correspondence that can be sent through it includes the appointment or revocation of a trademark agent, cancellation or withdrawal of a registration or application, a change of name or address, division of an application, and requests for extensions of time, and it also allows clients to pay a fee when one applies. Use the correspondence service for follow-up items rather than filing a fresh application, and quote your application number in every message about a specific file.
The examination wait forecast is not stated as a filing timeline. The CIPO Trademarks page carries a month-specific forecast, approximately 8.2 months for applications filed in October 2026, which changes by filing month and would rot in a standing guide, so no wait figure is given here. A total time from filing to registration is not stated, because no opened CIPO page states one. The length of a registration term is not stated, because the opened pages state the renewal fee without stating the term. The pre-June 17, 2019 registration fee figure is not stated, because it does not apply to a new filing. Madrid Protocol filing, priority claims beyond the telephone-amendment references, and the contents of the trademarks guide itself are not described, because the opened e-filing and process pages do not describe them. Confirm any of these points on the current CIPO pages before relying on them.
Five things: an implicit or explicit indication that registration of a trademark is being sought, the name and contact information of the applicant, a representation or description of the trademark such as a drawing, the goods or services the trademark is associated with, and the application fee. An application with all five receives a filing date and an application number.
Yes. You need a My Canada Business Account to use the Trademark e-filing application, which runs on a secure server on the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada website. If you do not have an account, the login page gives the steps to create one.
For 2026, the online fee is $491.06 for the first class of goods or services and $149.04 for each additional class as of the filing date. Filing through any other means costs $640.10 for the first class in 2026, with the same $149.04 for each additional class. The published 2027 fees are $499.41, $151.57, and $650.98 respectively, and the fee you pay depends on the date the Registrar receives payment.
Yes. The Trademarks e-Filing service handles new and amended trademark and certification mark applications. The same filing-date requirements apply, and you use the amendment service only if you have already filed an application and hold a CIPO filing receipt.
No. The e-filing pages list consulting the list of trademark agents only as something to do should you wish to hire a registered trademark agent to handle your file. Agents on that list are licensed with the College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents, and an agent who files for you links a CIPO username to act in the online services.
CIPO checks formalities first, then a trademark examiner reviews the application and decides whether it can be approved for advertisement in the Trademarks Journal. Simple problems may be fixed by phone, and for more complex problems you receive an examiner's report with six months to respond. An approved application is published in the Journal, others have two months to oppose, and if the application is refused you may appeal to the Federal Court of Canada.