Kyrgyzstan Amends Trademark Law

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”, which came into force on February 11, 2014.

The amendments aim to harmonize the law with the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic and other laws and regulations, as well as 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 the collective trademarks may not be the subjects of pledge, which leads to the conclusion that the right holder can now pledge all other types of trademarks.

The law also introduces the definition of a well-known trademark as well as the provisions related to granting protection to well-known trademarks. Among other things, the law states that the trademark can be recognized as well known by the Board of Appeals at the request of the right 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 not later than one month from the registration date. The legal protection of well-known trademarks is termless.

Under the amendments, the right holder can request an accelerated examination of a trademark application before the Kyrgyz PTO. Such request is to be filed within six months from 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 an appellation of origin registration certificate has also been reduced from three months to one month.

By: Elena Zubenko

For more information, please contact Elena Zubenko at our Ukraine office.