The National Assembly of Quebec recently adopted Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, which includes amendments to the Charter of the French Language (the “Charter”) directed to the use of registered trademarks on product packaging and public signage.

Changes introduced by the legislation with respect to registered trademarks include:

• Amending to insert s. 51.1 of the Charter to require that, for product packaging that includes generic or descriptive words as part of a registered trademark, those descriptive or generic words “appear in French on the product or on a medium permanently attached to the product”.
• Amending to insert s. 58.1 of the Charter to require that, for exterior public signage (i.e. those “visible from outside premises”), registered trademarks in a language other than French be accompanied by “markedly predominant” French wording.

At present, the changes are slated to come into force on 1 June 2025.

View the text of the adopted Bill here.