Belarus: amendments to the Trademark Law
On January 5, 2016, the National Center of Intellectual Property (NCIP) of the Republic of Belarus adopted amendments to the Law of the Republic of Belarus on Trademarks and Service Marks. The amended version of the Law will enter into force on July 15, 2016.
The brief overview of amendments is represented below.
Application for trademark registration
Respective class (classes) according to the Nice Classification will have to be obligatory indicated in a trademark application. Under the current law, list of goods must be included in a trademark application, while indication of class (classes) is optional.
The amended law also stipulates that an applicant will have to submit the Power of Attorney and document confirming the payment of the prescribed fees simultaneously with the application or within two months from the filing date. Currently, these documents should be filed to the NCIP simultaneously with filing a trademark application.
In a view of this, the term for conducting preliminary examination will be changed. According to the amended law, this term will constitute two months from the day of submission of the last document(s), i.e. document confirming the payment of the prescribed fees and/or the POA; while currently it is two months from the filing date.
Publication of a trademark application
According to the amended law, a trademark application will have to be published on the official NCIP’s website within two months from the date of a decision to accept the application for consideration. Under the current law, publication of a trademark application is not stipulated.
Substantive examination
Under the amended law, substantive examination will be conducted within two years from the date of taking a trademark application into consideration, while currently this term is not stipulated.
Renewal of missed time limits
According to the amended law, restoration of some missed time limits will become possible. Namely, the term for responding to preliminary and/or substantive examination office actions, submission of a request for conducting a reexamination and filing a complaint with the Appeal Council will be able to restore within three months from the date of their expiration by paying the extra fees and stating the valid reasons for the missed time limits.
Publication of trademark registration
Under the amended law, the term for publication of information about trademark registration in the official bulletin will be reduced from three to two months after the date of trademark registration or entering its changes/corrections into the Register.
Conversion of the international registration into a national application and national trademark registration into international registration
Under the updated law, conversion of an international trademark registration into a national application will become possible by trademark owner’s request filed to the NCIP. The priority date may be established by the date of the international registration or subsequent designation notification date/priority date of the international registration.
The revised law will also allow converting national trademark registration into international registration by trademark owner’s request and payment of the prescribed fee. Converted international registration will not cease national registration or affect trademark owner’s rights acquired due to the international registration. Under the current law, this procedure is not carried out.
License Agreement
Under the amended law, content requirements to License Agreement will be changed. License Agreement will have to include quality values of goods of the licensee or the condition that the quality of goods of the licensee will be not lower than the quality of the goods of the licensor and that the licensor will carry out the control over fulfillment of this condition. Under the current law, an indication of the quality values of goods of the licensee is not required.
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