See you in court : A party may not appeal against an order made in its favour

2008-01-01

S
EEYOUINCOURT:APARTYMAYNOTAPPEALAGAINSTANORDERMADE
INITSFAVOUR

MARCELNAUD*
LEGERROBICRICHARD,
LLP
L
AWYERS,PATENTANDTRADEMARKAGENTS

Inajudgment1renderedonApril8,2008anddeliveredfromtheBench,theFederal
CourtofAppeal(“FCA”)dismissedanappealby“SeeYouIn-CanadianAthletes
FundCorporation”(the“Appellant”)inrespectofadecisioninjudicialreview
proceedingsfromajudgethatpreventedtheCanadianOlympicCommittee(the
“Respondent”)topublishthewords”SeeyouinTorino”,”SeeyouinBeijing,and
“SeeyouinVancouver”asofficialmarks.
(Byvirtueofsection9oftheTrade-MarksAct,nopersonmayadopt,inconnection
withabusiness,anymarkconsistingof,orsonearlyresemblingastobelikelytobe
mistakenfor,anybadge,crest,emblemormarkadoptedandusedbyanypublic
authority,inCanadaasanofficialmarkforwaresorservices.)
Surprisingly,whileitwassuccessfulinpreventingtheRespondentfrompublishingits
officialmarks,theAppellantnonethelessfiledanappealbecauseoneofitsargument
wasrejected,namelythattheRespondentwasalicenseeofthemarkfromthe
InternationalOlympicCommittee.TheAppellantcontendedthattheFederalCourt
erredinitsreasonsandsoughttohavethisfindingreversed.
TheFCAdecidednottointervene,onthebasisthat“apartywhohasobtainedthe
reliefitsoughtisnotnormallyentitledtoappealagainstthejudge’sreasons”.
TheRespondent,onitspart,alsofiledacross-appealtochallengethedecision
madebytheFederalCourt.ItsoughttoreversetheFederalCourt’sfindingthatthe
Respondent“hadnot“adoptedandused”themarkspriortothedecisionofthe
Registrartopublishthemasofficialmarks”.

*©CIPS,2008.
Lawyer,MarcelNaudisamemberofLEGERROBICRICHARD,
LLP,amultidisciplinaryfirmof
lawyers,andpatentandtrademarkagents.PublishedintheMayissueoftheWorlTrademarkLaw
Report.Publication293.052.
1SeeYouIn-CanadianAthletesFundCorporationv.CanadianOlympicCommittee,2008FCA124
(CanLII
)

2
Inrefusingtograntthecross-appeal,theFCAreliedonthefactthattheonlyrelevant
evidenceof“use”,namelytheevidenceofdistributiontothepublicofpenand
flashlightsetswiththeCOClogoandthemarksinquestion,wassufficiently
equivocaltoconsiderthattheJudgemadenopalpableandoverridingerrorin
concludingthattheRespondentdidnotsucceedinestablishingthatithadusedthe
marksasrequired.

3
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