Substantial amendments to modernize Canada’s industrial design regime came into force on  5 November 2018. To support the modernization of Canada’s industrial design regime, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has released a new Industrial Design Office Practice Manual, which came into force concurrently with the coming into force of the amendments on 5 November 2018.  The CIPO has also recently announced that it has introduced an updated version of its Canadian Classification Standard for Industrial Designs in an attempt to enable the CIPO to conduct a comprehensive prior art search using classifications that are more aligned with international standards. The online Canadian Industrial Design database has also been updated to allow users to search under this updated classification system. The document showing the updated classification system can be found here. The CIPO’s announcement on this point can be found here.