Trademarks

The Ministry of Trade of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced an increase of about 15% on the country’s official fees regarding intelectual property, that covers trademark, patent and design registrations.

If you wish to know more about this matter, please contact us at africa@inventa.com .

The launhcing of this domain is divided in 3 phases. The Sunrise Phase started on the past 23rd ofjuly of 2017 and will end on October 22nd of 2017. During this period, only the oweners who have trademarks registered in Kenya will have the right to apply for the corresponding domain names. To do that, it will only be necessary to have a confirmation letter from the Intelectual Property Institute of Kenya to verify if the trademarks are registered in the country.

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), formerly known as English Speaking African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ESARIPO), was created with the Lusaka Agreement (1976) and currently boosts 19 member-states, which are mostly English speaking countries. ARIPO intends to promote the cooperation between members regarding the protection of intellectual property rights and with time it developed to a regional system that allows the registration of patents, trademarks and plant varieties.

Madrid System makes possible for any trademark owner to register the trademark up to 115 territories through a single application.

By adhering to the Protocol, starting on November 7 of 2017, trademark owners in Thailand will be able to designate all the country members of the Madrid Protocol through a single application, making their Intellectual Property assets to become protected on the remaining 98 members of the Protocol.

Although Zimbabwe joined the Madrid Protocol in 2015, the protocol was not given effect since Zimbabwe failed to amend its domestic law, which is required for Common Law countries.

As a result, some doubts arised on whether Zimbabwe was effectively a member of the treaty or not, and, consequently, if international registrations designating Zimbabwe were legal.

As for 2017, all doubts have been cleared by Trade Marks Regulations 2017, and all international registrations can legally designate Zimbabwe.

1 - Exclusive right to use the trademark

The trademark’s registration guarantees that, in a specific territory, no one will be able to offer the same services or products that the trademark’s owner does, using the same name. This fact ensures that the trademark’s owner is the only entity with the right to use and reproduce its trademark, constituting a true legal monopoly.

2 - Advantage over competition

Before the changes resulting from IP Law No. 1/13 of July 28, 2009, trademarks and industrial designs in Burundi were registered for an unlimited period of time.

After the promulgation of the current IP Law, the deadlines for trademarks and industrial designs were officially determined, in which trademarks shall be valid for a period of 10 years from the filing date, with the possibility of indefinite renewals for the same period of time and industrial designs shall be valid for 5 years from the filing date, with the possibility of two renewals of five years each.

With the new Intellectual Property (IP) Law no. 6769, in force as of January 10th, 2017, there came a few changes to the IP system in Turkey. As of now, the registration of IP assets in Turkey is now faster and more reliable. The main changes consist of the following:

The famous former basketball player, that sued the Chinese sports trademark Qiaodan Sports, due to the misuse of a trademark with Michael Jordan’s name, in Chinese, finally saw the Chinese justice system proving him right, already in the last appeal instance.

The case that has been dragging on for more than 4 years seems to have reached an end, indeed a happy end for the NBA legend, as you may verify by the previously published article (https://inventa.com/pt/noticias/artigo/23).

On past November 10th, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided on the possibility of registering the famous Rubik’s Cube as trademark.