Update on Kosovo Issuing IP Certificates

We reported last month that Kosovo’s Intellectual Property Office held an official ceremony to mark the issuance of its first certificates for intellectual property rights.

The certificates issued are certificates of registrations confirming revalidations in Kosovo of the registered IP rights in the former Yugoslavia.

It is unlikely that the IPO will be able to issue a large number of these certificates any time soon since the office employs only a few people.

The issuance may also be problematic because the certificates only show basic data of the rights revalidated in Kosovo, but no details such as the lists of goods.

Kosovo’s IPO has not yet issued any registration certificates for new trademarks, patents or designs.

The basic trademark database should be completed soon and the searches possibly enabled in early 2010.

For more information, please contact Slobodan Petosevic in our Brussels Office.