I can’t help it. Every time I smell Strawberry Kiwi Lip Smackers® lip gloss, I am transported back to grade nine. It was during that time that I discovered makeup, boys, peer pressure and the classic high school “shaker” made complete with terrible alcohol in a 2-litres sugary format. It was a sort of “coming of age”. I still remember the time fondly, though all logic suggests that I should have repressed such events deep within my psyche.

As I have grown older, distinct smells point to more sophisticated and refined happenings (or so I like to think). Still, there are certain scents that can instantly take me back to a certain place and time, remembering the events in vivid detail. As I boarded my flight to Montreal yesterday, a woman flitted on by and I was met with the distinct smell of a perfume called “Artemesia” by Penhaligon. I had not smelled it in years and, instantly, I was taken back to 2016 when my world, as I knew it, exploded – more about that another time. Cue internal nostalgic music within.

With a naturally inquisitive and wandering mind, I began to question what it was about scents that could trigger such vivid memories. Of course, I turned to the interwebs and read up on the matter.

As it turns out, neuroscience confirms that smell and memory are closely linked because of the brain’s anatomy. Why, you ask? Well, smells are handled by the olfactory bulb in the brain, where odours hit the limbic system somewhat directly because the olfactory bulb is connected to the amygdala (the area of the brain responsible for processing emotion). I won’t pretend to really understand the finer points of the science, but the long and skinny is this: scents can and do trigger vivid memories.

It is scientifically proven that scents can be associated with certain moments, persons, times and places. So, if smells can be definitively tied to certain memories, one may suggest that they have the ability to act as indicators of source, i.e. Trademarks. And that is the very thing, smells can now be registered as trademarks in Canada, though this was not always the case.

On June 17, 2019, the federal Trademarks Act (Canada) (the “Act”) underwent significant amendments, where the revised Act now recognizes non-traditional trademarks. For example, sounds, tastes, and scents (to name a few new, novel marks) may now be registered as trademarks. Arguably, the amendments create fertile grounds for new and innovative forms of marketing.

Certainly, scents as part of a larger branding picture have been around for years. For example, certain hotel chains have been pumping signature scents through their lobbies for years. Still, to this day, I can identify the Westin Hotel scent. The power of scent has been understood for some time, but, now, it can be legally protected, and this serves as another conduit for creating a powerful brand. As noted in a 2018 Harvard Business Review article: “In an age where it’s becoming more and more difficult to stand out in a crowded market, you must differentiate your brand emotionally and memorably. Think about your brand in a new way by considering how scent can play a role in making a more powerful impression on your customers.”

While scent trademarks are now available for registration in Canada, at the time of writing this article, no scents have registered in Canada. However, scents have registered in other jurisdictions. For example, in the USA, the smell of Play-Doh® modelling clay has registered, where the scent is described as “sweet, slightly musky, vanilla fragrance, with slight overtones of cherry, combined with the smell of a salted, wheat-based dough”. Not sure that I remember the smell of Play-Doh®, though, sadly, I can remember the taste.