Tajikistan Amends Trademark Law, Pending Applications Now Published

A law introducing amendments to the Tajik law on trademarks entered into force on January 2, 2019, bringing several important changes.

The Tajik IPO now publishes in its Official Gazette information on pending trademark applications that passed the formal examination, which is carried out within a month from the date of filing. Any interested party may then submit a written opposition against the pending application between the moment of publication in the Official Gazette and the substantive examination, which is usually carried out 11 or 12 months after the formal examination. Before the new law, the Tajik IPO only published information on registered trademarks, while written oppositions were not officially provided for in the law.

Trademarks will not be registered if they are identical or confusingly similar to, or contain elements that are identical or confusingly similar to:

• Religious symbols;
• Flag, emblem or other state symbols;
• Abbreviated or full names of international, intergovernmental organizations, their emblems, flags and other symbols;
• Official control and guarantee marks, hallmarks, seals, and other marks or insignia (these elements may be included with a trademark disclaimer, if the applicant has the consent of the authorized bodies)
• Industrial designs registered in Tajikistan before the priority date of the trademark in question.

The previous version of the law only stipulated that “generally accepted symbols and marks” could not be registered.

Finally, if a trademark registration expires and a renewal request has not been filed, the trademark will not be re-registered for a period of one year from the date of expiration in the name of a person other than the previous rights holder or legal successor (this period used to be three years).

By: Djakhangir Aripov and Gulnoza Abdurakhmonova

For more information, please contact Djakhangir Aripov at our Uzbekistan office.