1. Registered trademarks – a nationally or regionally (i.e., multi-nationally) registered mark on the principal or primary register in the mark’s jurisdiction. Must have national effect and be registered at the time it is submitted for verification.

2. Court validated marks – refer to a mark that has been validated by a court of law or other judicial proceeding at the national level, such as unregistered (common law) marks and/or well-known marks.

Marks protected by statute of treaty – for marks protected by statute or treaty, the relevant statute or treaty must be in effect at the time the mark is submitted to the TMCH for inclusion.

3. Other marks that constitute intellectual property

The range of samples accepted to support verification of proof of use by TMCH is intended to be flexible to accommodate practices from multiple jurisdictions.

Accordingly, examples of acceptable evidence include items from either of the following categories:

  1. Labels, tags, or containers from a product; or

  2. Advertising and marketing materials (including brochures, pamphlets, catalogues, product manuals, displays or signage, press releases, screen shots, or social media marketing materials).

Physical copies of samples are not required. Copies of photographic submissions will be acceptable.

Examples of samples that would not be accepted as adequate proof of use include:

  1. Inclusion of a trademark in a domain name;

  2. Email messages;

  3. Licenses to use a trademark application for business licenses that include the trademark as part of the business name;

  4. Business cards.

The sample submitted must contain the complete name of the registered trademark as recorded in the Trademark Records and as verified. TMCH will not assume the role of making determinations on the scope of rights associated with a recorded trademark or the labels it can generate.