Region: Montenegro

Montenegro has drafted amendments to its trademark law in order to bring it into line with the EU trademark legislation. Among other things, the new law permits the cancellation of trademarks that have become generic, as well as of trademarks that are likely to cause confusion with existing marks. It is expected that the amendments will be adopted in the near future.

04 April 2014

Visa International Service Association, the US multinational financial services corporation, has obtained the registration of MORE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD GO WITH VISA for services in Class 36. The Montenegrin Intellectual Property Office had initially found that the mark’s “general appearance did not enable the goods/services to be distinguished in the course of trade”.

04 July 2012

A year after the opposition procedure was introduced in Montenegro, the first round of pending trademark applications has been published for opposition in the December issue of the <i>Official Bulletin</i> of the Montenegro IP Office. Although it was possible to oppose international trademark applications, this was not previously the case for national trademark applications.

10 January 2012

A new decree concerning goods suspected of infringing IP rights came into force in Montenegro on July 16 2011 and will be applied as of January 1 2012. The new decree makes it possible for IP rights holders to destroy infringing goods seized by Customs without first having to initiate court proceedings. To be able to destroy the infringing goods, the written consent of the owner of the goods is sufficient.

02 November 2011

The Law on Designations of Origin, Geographical Indications and Traditional Specialties Guaranteed for Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs has come into force. The law provides that the owner of a designation of origin or geographical indication registered under the provisions of the Law on Geographical Indications must file a request for registration under the new law within 18 months of its coming into force.

05 May 2011

Further to the adoption of the Law on the Protection of Industrial Designs, which came into force on January 8 2011, the Montenegrin Intellectual Property Office has announced important changes introduced by the new law. Among other things, the procedure for the registration of industrial designs has been simplified to achieve compliance with the relevant EU regulations.

10 March 2011

The Montenegrin Parliament has adopted the new Law on the Protection of Industrial Design, which came into force on January 8 2011. The law prescribes the re-registration of designs registered before the Serbian IPO prior to May 28 2008, the date on which the Montenegrin IPO started operations. The final deadline to request the re-registration of a design is January 8 2012.

07 February 2011

The new Trademark Law of Montenegro has come into force. Under the law, the owners of trademarks registered in Serbia before May 28 2008 must 'revalidate' them in Montenegro before December 16 2011. Among other things, <i>ex officio</i> examination on relative grounds has been abolished and opposition proceedings have been introduced.

28 January 2011

In <i>Facebook Inc v Abbas</i>, a WIPO panel has ordered that the domain name 'facebook.me', which was registered in 2008 during the auction period for '.me' domain names, be transferred to Facebook Inc. Among other things, the panel rejected the respondent's argument that he collected domain names as a hobby.

14 September 2010

The Montenegrin parliament is expected to adopt a new trademark law in early July. Under Article 65 of the new law, trademark owners must request that their rights be entered into the Montenegrin Trademarks Register within 12 months of the law coming into force.

01 July 2010