

It’s about proving who was the original creator/user of the IP, instead of who is the first to file to have that IP protected.
The flipside of this would be having random holding companies just mass filing for ownership of everything posted online, said, written-down, or created, in the hopes that they get approved first so they can sue others, even the creators, for using it.
Look at the “very demure, very mindful” woman, Jools Lebron. Someone else (Jefferson Bates) file to trademark the saying because the original creator didn’t think to until after it was viral. Because the laws are ultimately about proving who was the creator, and not who filed first in the USA, it’s likely that Jools will get ownership, eventually.
They’re just other cards in disguise.
Some of them are owned by Citibank, which makes them not Visa or Mastercard, but Citibank is still American owned. The other issue is that many stores in Canada are still owned by Americans or American companies.