Pardon My French: Trademarks in Commercial Advertising in Québec in Light of the Recent Amendments to the Regulations under the Charter of the French Language

• Author: François Larose
• Position: François Larose is a partner with Bereskin & Parr LLP in Montréal, Canada. His practice focuses on all aspects of trademark law in addition to licensing and related agreements, regulatory, such as Charter of the French Language issues, and intellectual property litigation. He may be reached at flarose@bereskinparr.com.
• Pages: 37-41

Published in Landslide® magazine, Volume 10, Number 3, a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL), ©2018 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.

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(Pardon My French)

Trademarks in Commercial

Advertising in Québec in Light

of the Recent Amendments to the

Regulations under the Charter of

the French Language

By François Larose

The Canadian province of Québec is famous for its joie de vivre and cul-

ture—being the birth place of singer Céline Dion, movie director Denis

Villeneuve, the Cirque du Soleil, and delicacies such as poutine. It is

also known for its signicant French-speaking population. Maintaining

French as the language of the land is not an easy task when its population is sur-

rounded by over 300 million English-speaking neighbors, and thus, according to

many, requires strict laws.1

This is why Québec adopted, 40 years ago, on August26, 1977, the Charter of

the French Language (Charter),2 a unique provincial law that declares French as

the ofcial language of Québec. The Charter’s objective, set out in its preamble,

is “to make French the language of Government and the Law, as well as the nor-

mal and everyday language of work, instruction, communication, commerce and

business.” It requires entities including schools, government agencies, and busi-

nesses to use French in their communications with the public.

Over its existence, the Charter has been criticized and even challenged before

the courts, but it has also shown to be economically protable3 and to have con-

tributed signicantly to the protection of the French language in Québec. In 2015,

the Québec Court of Appeal reafrmed the importance of protecting French lan-

guage in Québec, notably through public signage:

For reasons that are known and are no longer disputable, promoting and protect-

ing the French language is, in Québec, an established priority responding to a real

and persistent need. The use of French in public is one of the pivotal points of this

policy: “Public signs and posters and commercial advertising shall be solely in the

François Larose is a partner with Bereskin & Parr LLP in Montréal, Canada. His practice

focuses on all aspects of trademark law in addition to licensing and related agreements,

regulatory, such as Charter of the French Language issues, and intellectual property

litigation. He may be reached at arose@bereskinparr.com.

Excusez mon français

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