require, from time to time, owners submit information or evidence regarding the ongoing usage of registered marks. If a trademark is abandoned, shows no evidence of being used or is not renewed, the Registrar of Trademarks may expunge the trademark from the register. The registration process Trademark agents, selection, searches Trademark owners typically retain the services of a trademark agent to advise, prepare and file the application to register. Section 12 of the act contains subsections (a)-(i) which list the type of marks not eligible for registration. The ineligibilities are generally designed to ensure adequate distinctiveness and ensure that names, places, people and descriptive or common words are not monopolized through registration. In addition, when a generic product is legally sold by a number of distributors, it is not generally possible for one manufacturer to claim exclusive trademark protection. The Act also prohibits the registration of any mark connoting association with royalty, government, international agencies, professions, or marks containing obscenity. If a mark is eligible for registration, then trademark agents may conduct searches of registers to determine if any registered mark has similarities that may be confusing. A trademark does not have to be original, but it must be sufficiently distinct. Searches of registers at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), NUANS, and possibly US registers are standard practice. Application to register Section 16 of the Act provides three basic grounds on which an applicant may base their application. First, the mark has been previously used or made known in Canada. Advertising the trademark may be sufficient to satisfy the mark being made known in Canada, even though it has never been used in Canada. Second, the mark has been registered and used in a country party to the international convention. Third, the applicant proposes to use the mark in Canada; since the mark will be registered only after the applicant files a declaration of commenced use of mark in Canada, as per subsection 40(2), the applicant satisfies the requirement of owning the trademark at the time of registration. Post-eligibility process The registrar either finds the mark eligible or ineligible for registration. An owner may appeal the registrar's ineligibility decision to the court. For an eligible mark the next step is for CIPO to issue a notice of the application's approval for advertisement. The application and trademark must then be advertised in the Trademarks Journal for two months, providing a