Amendments to trademark legislation come into force

On December 18 2013 the Kyrgyz Parliament adopted the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic “On Amendments to the Law on Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin”. The law came into force on February 11 2014.

The amendments aim to harmonise the law with the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic and other laws and regulations, and to align it with the current practice in the field.

The amended law introduces the right to pledge exclusive rights to a trademark and the rights deriving from a trademark. The law states that collective trademarks may not be the subject of a pledge, which leads to the conclusion that right holders can now pledge all other types of trademarks.

The law also introduces the definition of a 'well-known trademark', as well as provisions relating to the grant of protection to well-known trademarks. Among other things, the law states that a trademark can be recognised as well known by the Board of Appeals at the request of the rights holder. Such trademark is then entered into the Kyrgyz register of well-known trademarks and the certificate confirming the status of the trademark is to be issued no later than one month of the registration date. The legal protection of well-known trademarks is termless.

Under the amendments, a rights holder can request the accelerated examination of a trademark application before the Kyrgyz Patent and Trademark Office. Such request is to be filed within six months of the filling date.

Finally, the time period allowed to publish information regarding the registration of trademarks and appellations of origin in the Official Bulletin has been reduced from three months to one month. The period for the issuance of a registration certificate for an appellation of origin has also been reduced from three months to one month.

Elena Zubenko, PETOŠEVIC, Kiev