- Parties: The applicant was Tweak-D Inc. The respondent was the Attorney General of Canada.

- Subject Matter: On July 13, 2022, the Registrar of Trademarks released a decision refusing the applicant’s trademark application no. 1,817,001 to register the word mark TRIBAL CHOCOLATE in connection with hair care products. The Registrar found this mark to be confusing with the registered word mark TRIBAL, registered under registration number TMA826279. The applicant appealed under s. 56 of the Trademarks Act, 1985.

- Ruling: The court ruled in the respondent’s favour and dismissed the appeal without costs. The court found no overriding and palpable error on the Registrar’s part. The Registrar reasonably considered the relevant evidence, including the state of the register, the co-existence agreement, and the lack of evidence of actual confusion since 2016, the court held. The Registrar was entitled to find a likelihood of confusion between the marks TRIBAL CHOCOLATE and TRIBAL, having regard to the s. 6(5) factors for likelihood of confusion and surrounding circumstances, the court said. The Registrar considered the absence of actual confusion and correctly pointed out that this absence was not determinative, the court added.

- Date: The hearing was set on Mar. 21, 2023. The court released its decision on Mar. 28, 2023.

- Venue: This was a federal case before the Federal Court.

- Amount: The court found that the facts of this case supported the exercise of its discretion not to award costs.