Lawyer tells Gormley Sask. company has trademarked Bunny Hug

The term Bunny Hug is something you’ve probably heard all your life if you grew up in Saskatchewan.

It’s as common as saying “double double,” “gotch,” “darts,” or “mickey. But recently, a Regina business was granted sole use of the term due to their application to register it as a trademark.

Homage Inc., a Regina-based company, is now the sole owner of the trademark. Reagan Seidler, a lawyer in Toronto, said that theoretically, the trademark could have a huge impact on the marketplace.

“There’s now only one company that is allowed to call their sweatshirts bunny hugs anywhere in Canada, including in Saskatchewan, so anyone that advertises bunny hugs, anyone who has bunny hugs written on a label, if you’re a school and you’re doing a fundraiser and you’re selling some school clothing, you can’t call those bunny hugs or, in theory, you could get in trouble,” Seidler explained.

“You can enforce those registrations in a court proceeding, and you can get money. You could have the other companies destroy their merchandise. You could collect all the profits from all the money they have made on bunny hugs since the mark was registered.”

According to the Canadian Trademarks Database, the application issued for the trademark was produced in 2017, then later approved and registered in 2019.

Seidler said that there are ways the phrase could enter the public domain, however.

“If a company has not used their trademark in about three years, you can just have a registration cancelled. It’s not that complicated or expensive, and that’s the easiest way to get rid of registered trademarks,” said Seidler.

He explained that once a trademark has been issued, it’s quite difficult to forcefully remove that registration.

“Once the paperwork has gone through the (Canadian Intellectual Property Office), then their hands are tied and it’s beyond their jurisdiction, so the answer then is to go to federal court. I mean, even in a clear-cut case, you still have to prepare evidence and you still have to prepare your arguments. The federal court is a serious place, but they are the only ones now that can say that trademark should have never been granted,” said Seidler.

In Canada, words that describe features that are inherent to the product or service cannot be registered as trademarks. Other marks that cannot be registered as trademarks include names and surnames, marks that are misleading, places of origin, words in other languages, designs, or ideas that mimic another person’s, as well as prohibited marks such as government designs or a royal family crest.

As of 2023, the bunny hug trademark currently has an expiration date set for July, 2029.