A practice manual for maintaining Canadian industrial designs. Canada does not use annual fees for designs: a single maintenance fee is payable once in the life of the right. The administrative load is the lightest of any jurisdiction, but because there is no way back if that one deadline is missed, it warrants more care than its simplicity suggests.
1. At a glance
- System type
- Single maintenance fee
- Anchor date
- Date of registration
- Due date
- 5th anniversary of registration Once only
- Early payment
- Available at any time from registration
- Grace period
- 6 months + CAD 63
- Restoration
- None
- Reduction
- None Unlike patents, designs have no small entity status
- Term
- Later of registration + 10 years or filing + 15 years Current Act — filings from 2018-11-05
- Risk level
- Normal, but unrecoverable
2. Anchor date and due-date calculation
The anchor is the date of registration, and there is a single due date: the 5th anniversary.
Worked example
For a registration dated 2023-03-10, the maintenance fee falls due on 2028-03-10. There are no payment events after that.
| Instalment | Formula | Due date |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance fee (once) | Registration + 5 years | 2028-03-10 |
| Thereafter | No payment events | — |
3. Term — the current and former Acts differ
| Regime | Term |
|---|---|
| Current Act (filed 2018-11-05 or later) | Later of registration + 10 years or filing + 15 years |
| Former Act | Registration + 10 years (do not apply the 15-year axis) |
4. Payment timing and early payment
- Payment may be made at any time from registration onward.
- The deadline is the 5th anniversary of registration, but there is no reason to wait for it.
- Paying the maintenance fee as part of the registration workflow removes the deadline for the following five years.
- There are no payment events after the 5th anniversary, so do not create further schedule rows.
5. Grace period and late fee
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Grace period | 6 months from the due date |
| Late fee | CAD 63 |
| If unpaid | The right lapses — no restoration mechanism |
6. Lapse and restoration
7. Reduction
8. Official fees
| Item | CAD |
|---|---|
| Maintenance fee (2026) | 531.80 |
| Late fee | 63.00 |
Canadian official fees are index-adjusted every 1 January. For a case whose 5th anniversary is several years away, the amount will change in the meantime, so confirm the rate at the time of payment. Any estimate prepared in advance should be recalculated immediately before paying.
9. Term extension
Designs have no equivalent of pharmaceutical term extension. Canadian patents have the CSP, but it does not apply to designs. The term is fixed by the rules above and cannot be extended further.
10. Management checklist
Fields to populate first
- Date of registration, from which the maintenance deadline is calculated.
- Filing date, since the term calculation splits at 2018-11-05.
- Whether the maintenance fee has been paid. As it is paid once, that flag effectively closes out maintenance for the case.
- Leave the reduction field empty — designs have no small entity status.
Working sequence
- Once registration is confirmed, ask the client immediately about paying the maintenance fee early. There is no reason to wait five years.
- If early payment is declined, set the 5th anniversary as a hard deadline and state in the client advice that no restoration is available.
- Reconfirm the rate immediately before paying; several 1 January adjustments may have passed.
- Once paid, maintenance for that case is finished. Keep the expiry date and close the payment schedule.
Easily confused points
- This is not an annuity system. Do not create recurring annual rows.
- The patent small entity reduction must not be applied to designs.
- Applying the 15-year axis to a former Act case overstates the term.
- With no restoration available, the grace period cannot be treated as slack.
Sources, cut-off date and disclaimer
This manual is based on iphere's August 2026 survey of country-by-country overseas maintenance rules, together with values produced by the deadline engine that runs on those same rules. Official fees and deadline rules change by office notice, so please confirm against the official source and your local agent before any actual payment or filing.