A construction worker looks at renderings of plans for Ontario Place, Toronto, June 24, 2025. Therme Group’s proposed spa-and-waterpark complex at Ontario Place has prompted fierce opposition since the company was named a winning bidder in 2021.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Therme Group, the Austrian-owned company behind a massive spa and waterpark proposed for Toronto’s waterfront, has lost a trademark court battle with the operator of similarly named Thermëa wellness resorts in Winnipeg and Whitby, Ont.
The Federal Court of Appeal ruled this week that the waterpark builder’s Therme trademarks are “confusing” and cannot be registered for health and wellness services given Quebec-based Groupe Nordik’s trademarks for its Thermëa spas.
Therme registered trademarks in 2021 for its proposed complex at Ontario Place. The following year, a Nordik executive noticed Therme’s promotional videos pronounced its name as Ther-ma – which the Quebec company argues is similar to Thermëa – and turned to the courts.
A Therme Group representative said the company is reviewing the decision with its lawyers.
“We will continue to seek to protect the ‘Therme’ brand which we use globally and for which we obtained trademark protection in Canada,” the company said a statement.
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Premier Doug Ford’s plans to redevelop prime Toronto waterfront land at Ontario Place have been intensely controversial, including the government’s move to sign a 95-year lease with the Canadian arm of Vienna-based Therme Group for a spa-and-waterpark complex.
In a 2024 report, the province’s Auditor-General said the process used to select Therme was unfair and that the government had failed to verify information contained in the company’s bid. Therme Group’s application had pointed to six European spa facilities as proof of the success of its concept, but in fact it only directly operated one, in Bucharest, according to the Auditor-General.
Toronto intellectual property lawyer John Simpson said the Federal Court of Appeal ruling does not on its own mean that Therme must change its name. But he said the judgment is a blow to the company’s chances to eventually use this branding.
“For a project like this, you are going to want to have, call it robust trademark protection,” he said. “And the result of this decision is it really thins or narrows the trademark protection the development company is going to have around its core mark.”
Nordik would have to file a second case alleging a trademark infringement in order to actually force Therme to drop its name, Mr. Simpson said, as the Federal Court of Appeal ruling is only about the registering of Therme’s trademarks.
However, Mr. Simpson pointed out that earlier this year the Trademark Opposition Board had already tossed out Therme’s trademarks in Canada, deeming that they had not been used, with its spa and waterpark still unbuilt.
Alexandre Boileau, Groupe Nordik’s senior director of marketing and sales, said the company is “pleased” with the decision but declined to provide a detailed response because “the broader legal process is still ongoing and certain timelines remain open.” The company operates Thermëa Spa Village Winnipeg, which opened in 2015, and Thermëa Spa Village Whitby, which opened in 2022. It also runs Nordik Spa Village Chelsea in Chelsea, Que.
The ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a lower court judgment. The decisions focus on how average English-speaking consumers pronounce Therme (“Ther-ma,” the courts said) and whether the word is a descriptive term in French, which, as the judges noted, it is.
In November, 2024, Federal Court Justice Ekaterina Tsimberis found there is “a likelihood of confusion between” the Therme trademarks and Nordik’s Thermëa trademarks, based on how the words are pronounced in English.
The lower court declared invalid the Austrian company’s 2021 trademark registrations for Therme and Therme Group in relation to a list of services, including health spa resorts, health and wellness centres, and restaurant services. However, the decision did not affect other services, such as waterparks and play areas for children.
Both courts also concluded that Therme is a descriptive word based on the French word “thermes,” which means thermal baths. They also noted the two words have the same pronunciation in French. In finding that Therme is descriptive, the courts said anyone must be able to use the word.
“The fundamentals at play here are quite straightforward. You cannot register a trademark that in French or English is actually the description of the service or product,” said Pierre-Emmanuel Moyse, a law professor at McGill University who specializes in intellectual property.
Therme Group’s proposed spa-and-waterpark complex has prompted fierce opposition since the company was named a winning bidder in 2021. The project is the anchor of the province’s revitalization of Ontario Place, which also includes the relocated Ontario Science Centre, an enlarged concert venue and parkland.
The province is spending an estimated $2.2-billion – $1.8-billion more than first suggested – to revive Ontario Place, a 55-year-old defunct amusement park built on artificial islands in Lake Ontario that was shut in 2012 amid flagging attendance.
Local activists and opposition politicians have said Ontario Place should be parkland and not handed to a for-profit foreign firm.
The requirement that the government pay for a parking garage for Therme has long been a bullseye for activists opposing the spa, and a source of spiralling cost estimates. The province’s lease with Therme obligates the government to provide 1,600 dedicated parking spaces for the facility.
Last year, Mr. Ford unveiled plans for a five-storey, $400-million garage with 3,500 spots.