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Amendments to Trademark Laws

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Jul 01, 2013 (Newsletter Issue 10/13)
Croatia
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EU Membership Effective


Croatia has joined the European Union on 1 July 2013. The standard enlargement rules will be applied to Croatia:

1. Automatic extension of CTM to the new Member States.
The moment Croatia has joined EU on 1 July 2013 all CTMs will start producing their legal effects on the territory of Croatia with no necessity for the right holders to take any action in this respect.

2. CTMs will produce legal effects only from the date of accession (1 July 2013).
The owner of CTM will not enjoy earlier rights with respect to the Croatian Trademark filed before the date of 1 July 2013.

3. Existing CTMs cannot be challenged on the basis of the argument that the same is not registrable on absolute grounds in Croatia.
Registered CTMs (or CTM Applications that passed the absolute grounds examination before Croatia joined the EU) cannot be declared invalid based on the argument that such trademark does not fulfill absolute grounds examination in the Croatian language (e.g. descriptive in Croatian) .

4. CTMs filed before 1 January 2013 cannot be disputed on the basis of Croatian prior rights. However, their use may be prohibited in Croatia.
Due to the unitary character of the CTM, it will not be possible to file an opposition or a cancellation action based on earlier national rights in Croatia, as long as the CTM was filed before 1 January 2013 (CTM Application filed between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 30 2013, can be exceptionally subject to opposition based on earlier Croatian Trademark, pursuant to Article 165(3) of CTMR).

5. Claiming seniority of the earlier Croatian Trademark
Owners of Croatian trademarks who wish to extend the protection of their rights to the EU Member States, and be able to abandon their national Croatian trademark without losing Croatian priority will now be in position to do so by claiming seniority. This possibility has three conditions: 1) identical signs; 2) identical owners; 3) identical goods/services.

However, the right holder of an earlier National Trademark in Croatia may prohibit the use of a CTM through a Court action which can be filed with the Commercial Court in Zagreb. It should be mentioned that the right holder of the CTM for which the prohibition of use has been requested with the competent court in Croatia is allowed to use the CTM (considered to be use in good faith) until the decision of the Court has become final. If the use of the disputed CTM is continued after the date when the court decision on prohibition of use has become final, such use may constitute infringement of an earlier national Trademark in Croatia, which would still need to be proven in separate proceedings.

Source: Milojevic, Sekulic & Associates, Croatia