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Amendments to Trademark Laws

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Nov 22, 2017 (Newsletter Issue 20/17)
WIPO
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Amendments to Common Regulations


A number of amendments to the Common Regulations under the Madrid Agreement and Protocol entered into force on November 1, 2017.

The amendments cover a wide range of topics. Trademark owners and users of the Madrid System benefit from three key changes:

1. Voluntary description of a mark (Rule 9)

Certain countries (such as the United States and India) require applicants to provide a description of the mark in an international trademark application (Form MM2). This may be the case where the trademark is represented in “non-standard” or non-Latin characters. Applicants who fail to provide the required description can face an unexpected provisional refusal.

To help avoid the risk of this type of provisional refusal, applicants have now the opportunity to include a voluntary description of the mark in an international application or subsequent designation.

This means that, from November 1, 2017, an international application:
- must include, if required by the Office of origin, the same description of the mark contained in the basic application or registration (i.e., in the “basic mark”); and
- may also contain any other description of the mark (a “voluntary description”).

International application Form MM2 and subsequent designation Form MM4 have been modified to allow including up to two descriptions for trademarks. More information on this can be found in the Member Profiles Database.

2. Appointment or cancellation of a representative (Rules 3, 25 and 32)

As from November 1, 2017, each time when a representative is officially appointed or cancelled in connection with the international trademark registration, WIPO will notify the IP Offices in the countries/regions covered by the registration, and publish the appointment or cancellation in the WIPO Gazette.

3. Cancellation of subsequent designation of the United States caused by irregularities with Form MM18 (Rule 24(5)(c))

From November 1, 2017, unremedied irregularities involving Form MM18 (Declaration of intention to use the mark in the United States) will no longer lead to the abandonment of the subsequent designation request in other target markets.

If an irregularity that relates only to Form MM18 is found during WIPO’s examination, and this irregularity is not remedied within three months, only the designation of the United States will be cancelled. Any other countries/regions included in the request will no longer be affected.

For more information, please click here

Source: www.wipo.int