Think globally act locally

Patrick Geddes

Back on stage, TEDx Stanley Park is going to cause a stir in Vancouver on May 28, confirming again that ideas worth spreading. This significant event is held annually in Vancouver and it is a non-profit intellectual gathering of people, who want to share their ideas. TEDx is independent from “mother-conference” in the USA but has to follow the same principles that ensure that TED is the event to learn and to get inspired.

Since 2013, TEDx Stanley Park has been putting together speakers, whose stories never cease to inspire and motivate.

Initially, the name TED was supposed stand for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

However, themes of conferences went far beyond and cover nearly all areas: science, education, art, sport, social awareness, medicine, entrepreneurship, ecology etc. From the same stage, you would hear about physiology details of a brain—all the way up to art, sexual life, and environment.

Best thing about TED is that all of the lectures are available online, free of charge. And If somehow you have no idea what TED is, start with these 11 Must-See TED talks.

This year’s main topic of TEDx Stanley Park is Ideas to Action. They say, all human achievements have 3 sources: the dreams that we dream, the choices that we make, the actions that we take.

Of course, our actions speak louder than words. That’s why TEDx Stanley team selected such speakers who will literally force you to act and help to realize your fresh ideas and dreams. All talks are aimed to power people’s attitude to various problems and initiate positive movements for changes. 15 outstanding speakers (some of which Trademark Factory® is proud to have as clients) will share their innovative ideas and new vision. Here is just a small synopsis of talks:

• Isabelle Mercier will reveal how we are killing ourselves waking up worried
• Dan Lok will explain why great ideas don’t succeed
• Iman Aghay will share his deathbed lessons
• Gary Patterson will express how it is to be different and why people are often uncomfortable with reality
• Julus Ku-Lea will speak about nowadays slavery and how it is connected with our consuming products
• Kieron Sweeney an international business coach, lecturer, and digital entrepreneur will teach how to be more financially secure

Still wondering if it’s worth attending? Stop that! It certainly is, but the organizers wanted to make that even simpler for you to spend one unforgettable day surrounded by amazing people, to get inspiration, to encourage yourself for accomplishment and to be involved in provoking conversations.

Drop everything, head over to http://tedxstanleypark.com and use Andrei to get $20 off your lucky ticket for this incredible event.

So, will you put your ideas into action?

Canada is taking the final steps to align its trademark system with the rest of the world.

This is mostly great news because it will make it much easier for Canadian businesses to protect their brands internationally. It will also allow brand owners outside of Canada to specify Canada in their international trademark applications. To learn more about deficiencies of Canada’s current trademarking regime, watch our cartoon: How Can Canadian Businesses Protect their Brands Internationally.

One downside of the change is that government fees for filing trademark applications in Canada are almost certain to go up. In many cases, significantly.

Canada is joining the Nice Convention, according to which all products and services are divided into 45 categories called “classes”. There are 34 classes of products and 11 classes of services.

Currently, Canadian government fees for filing a trademark application are CAD 450 per trademark, no matter how many goods and services your trademark application covers. In most other countries, government fees are calculated on a per class basis. For example, most U.S. trademark applications cost their owners USD $275—$375 in filing fees for each class of goods and services listed in the trademark application.

So if you want to protect your trademark for potato chips, crackers, packaging, baseball caps, online retail store featuring consumer products, and cafe and restaurant services (this, by the way, is a real-life example), you’re looking at a trademark application in 6 classes. If Canada adopts a fee of CAD 300 per class, the total fees will be CAD 1,500 per application compared to CAD 450.

Canada has already modified its website to add references to classes (which caused Canadian Intellectual Property Office’s website to be down several times over the past few days).

As of today, grouping goods and services into classes is still voluntary, but we are one step away from the announcement about new, per-class, government fees, at which point class specification will become mandatory. This is now a matter of weeks before filing fees will go up.

No specifics have been disclosed as to whether the new rules and fees will affect pending trademark applications but there is a good chance that if you file your trademark applications before new rules come into effect, you will not be required to pay for each class.

This is the reason so many business owners are under pressure to file their trademark applications sooner rather than later.

And if you have a brand you have been putting off trademarking in Canada, NOW is the time.

Yes, we want you to take action, we want to agitate you to protect your brand ASAP. But we also want to take responsibility. Trademark Factory® has always been about putting our money where our mouth is.

If you choose to use our services between October 1, 2015 and the date when new fees are in effect, and the new combined filing and post-allowance fees end up to be lower than the current CAD $450 per trademark, then we will refund you the difference in government fees from our own pocket.

So order your free trademarkability report at http://freeTMsearch.com to see if your brand can be trademarked. And if we’ve already done it for you but you’ve been procrastinating whether it’s the right time to move forward with our services, give us a call at 778.869.7281.

We’ll be happy to help.

On September 25, 2015, Five hundred entrepreneurs gathered at DreamTalks 2.0 event in Vancouver.

Trademark Factory had a booth at the event, and we had our free trademark registration services draw.

Watch the video and find out who the lucky winner is!

Spoiler Alert: Masha Mincov who worked the trade show with me is also featured in the video, along with her little sister Patricia.

Check out my new interview with Robert Szmigiel of VancouverEntrepreneur.Ca

And make sure you subscribe to Robert’s podcast, he has a ton of great episodes!

There are several things you need to do to make sure you don’t lose your trademark, even after you registered it.

Watch this cartoon and find out for yourself.