A trademark is a sign that enables to distinguish the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises.
A trademark enables to distinguish the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises.
The trademark must be memorable so that the consumer can further choose the product and/or the service under the given trademark.
The trademark has an advertising nature, so the uniqueness of the trademark is essential.
Legal protection of the trademark is necessary, as other people will want to copy or counterfeit the trademark, especially if they have a good reputation. Trademark protection is a right, not an obligation. It gives the trademark owner the exclusive right to use the trademark for certain goods or services.
A registered trademark also enables the rightsholder to prohibit third parties from using trademarks identical to or similar to the protected trademark in the same field of activity in the area where the trademark is protected.
Trademark protection must be gained in good faith, as it is intended to protect the business of the trademark rightsholder, and not to restrict freedom of competition or to intentionally impede the business activities of other entrepreneurs.
The following signs represented graphically may be registered as trademarks:
(1) words, phrases, names, or slogans;
(2) letters or figures;
(3) pictures, images or symbols;
(4) three-dimensional images, in particular the shape of goods or of their packaging (container);
(5) holograms, colours, combinations of colours or compositions;
(6) sounds;
(7) any combinations of signs referred to in subparagraphs 1 to 6.
The state registration of a trademark shall be carried out on the basis of the filed application in accordance with Procedure No. 1 (PDF, DOC) which is submitted to the Intellectual Property Office.
Examination on the filed application is conducted:
Preliminary examination, which is conducted in accordance with Article 43 (1) of the Law, within 10 working days after setting the date of submission of the application. As a result of the preliminary examination, a decision to publish the application and conduct a substantive examination is made.
Publication, which is carried out basis on the decision on application publication and conduction of substantive examination, within 15 working days after the day of the decision. The application is published in the official bulletin of “Industrial Property”.
Substantive examination of the application, which is conducted within three months from the date of publication of the application. During the substantive examination, the existence of absolute and relative grounds for refusal provided for in Articles 9 and 10 of the Law is checked.
Registration. When on the basis of the results of the substantive examination, a decision is made to register the trademark or to register it partially, the receipt for the payment of the state fee shall be submitted to the Office, after which the trademark shall be registered and a certificate shall be issued.
No, the Law of RA on Trademarks does not provide fast registration provisions.
The trademark can be registered in the name of a legal entity, natural person or sole proprietor.
The registration of a trademark is carried out by the state authorized body (the Intellectual Property Office of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia), in accordance with the procedure established by law, on the basis of the application filed for registration of the trademark.
The application is filed by the applicant directly or through his / her representative.
One application must refer to one trademark.
According to the Article 40 (3) and (4) of the Law of RA on Trademarks, the application must refer to one trademark and be filed in Armenian, the documents attached to the application may be submitted in another language. In that case, the applicants of the Republic of Armenia are obliged to submit the translations of the attached documents into Armenian together with the application, while the foreign applicants shall submit the translations within two months after the day of filing the application.
According to Article 40 (7) of the Law, the application must contain, in particular:
1) information that identifies the applicant and his/her representative (if any);
2) clear image of the mark (reproduction, and in case of a sound trademark musical notes in written form) and description;
3) the list of goods and/or services for which the registration of a trademark is claimed, written according to the classes of the Nice Classification in the year of filing, in class numbers increasing order.
According to the Article 40 (7), the following documents are attached to the application:
1) Receipt of payment of the state fee for conducting substantive examination, and in case of more than one class, receipt of payment of the state fee for each additional class (Account: N 900005016200, code 20, Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia), and if the state fee has been paid with a discount, the reference on the number of employees is submitted as of the day of payment of the state fee;
2) the document confirming the competencies of the applicant's representative, if the application was filed through a representative, as well as in the relevant cases;
3) Priority Claim Document (international Priority - Article 42 (2) of the Law, exhibition Priority - Article 42 (3) of the Law);
4) Permission issued by the competent body in the cases provided by the Article 9 (1) of the RA Law on Trademarks;
5) agreement given by the rightsholder in the cases provided in the points 6-8 of the Article 10 (1) of the Law;
6) the regulation of the collective mark;
7) the regulation on the use of the certification mark.
When attaching documents in another language, the applicants of the Republic of Armenia are obliged to submit their Armenian translations together with the application, while the foreign applicants - within two months from the date of filing the application.
The application filed on behalf of the applicant shall be in printed form, as follows:
1) In the section 2 of the application, information about the applicant is provided:
a. Section 2.1 shall indicate the name of the applicant, in the case of a legal entity, or the name, surname, in the case of a natural person (the patronym may also be mentioned), or the name of the sole proprietor (patronym, if it is mentioned certificate of state register), as well as the two-letter code of the country according to the WIPO ST-3 standard (the two-letter code of the Republic of Armenia is AM), indicating the corresponding box - the box of real activity in case of a legal entity or sole proprietor, and in case of a citizen - citizenship or residence;
b. In the section 2.2 the location of the applicant (as indicated in the state register certificate) in case of a legal entity or sole proprietor should be mentioned, and the address - in case of a natural person. In the section 2.3 the direct contacts of the applicant are mentioned: telephone number, e-mail address.
c. The section 2.4 is indicated in case there is more than one applicant. In this case, the data provided for in points 2.1-2.3 of the application shall be submitted on additional paper sheets, indicating their number, which shall be attached to the application.
2) Section 3 shall be mentioned in case the applicant is represented through a representative․
3) Section 4 indicates the data necessary for direct correspondence with the applicant or his/her representative (if appointed), particularly the postal address, telephone number, e-mail address.
4) In section 5 of the application, the requirements on the declared trademark are placed (placed or posted):
a) In section 5.1 the image of the declared trademark is placed, the dimensions of which should not exceed 8 x 8 centimeters. If the size of the trademark exceeds 8 x 8 cm, the box in point 5.1 is marked, the image of the trademark is attached separately. A copy of this trademark is provided on the signed attachment. The image of the character must have a high quality graphic performance, which allows to reproduce it by means of copying techniques. The image of the declared mark is presented in the colors or combinations of colors as the state registration of the trademark is requested;
(b) Section 5.2 provides a brief description of the trademark to understand the substance of the claimed trademark, which is not published in case of trademark registration. The description of the claimed trademark is provided: the description of the constituent elements, the semantic meaning of the trademark and its separate parts. If the word trademark or a part of it has no semantic meaning, the method of its composition is given, for example, the first syllables of a few words, abbreviations, imaginary word, etc. If the word trademark is rarely used in Armenian (for example, a special term, historical name, obsolete word), the meaning of it is clarified. If the word trademark is presented not in Armenian, its transliteration is provided in Armenian alphabet, and the translation, if the sign has a literal meaning. If the trademark or a part of it is figurative, the description of all the elements included in it is provided and their semantic meaning is indicated, if any. If the trademark is of an abstract nature, what it symbolizes should be mentioned;
(c) The section 5.3 is marked only if the letters or numbers used in the trademark do not have certain performance characteristics and are presented in a standard form;
(d) The section 5.4 is marked only when the trademark is presented in one color, and its protection is requested as a distinctive element;
e) The section 5.5 shall be marked only when the presented trademark is voluminous, that is, the appearance of the product or its packaging (container). In this case, the general appearance of that mark is provided in field 5.1, and all the necessary projections that give an exhaustive idea about the declared voluminous trademark are attached to the application;
f) The sections 5.6-5.9 shall be marked only in cases when the declared trademark refers to the one mentioned in the given section;
g) The section 5.10 is marked only when an application for a collective mark is filed, attaching the regulation of the collective mark;
h) The section 5.11 shall be marked in case of application for color trademarks, indicating the colors for which protection is requested;
i) The section 5.12 shall be marked if the claimed trademark contains elements subject to disclamation - elements to which the applicant refuses legal protection;
j) The section 5.13 shall be marked only in the case of foreign applicants, if the given trademark is registered in the country of origin indicated in section 2 of the application. In this case, a copy of that registration certificate shall be attached to the application;
(f) The sections 5.14 և 5.15 are marked according to the nature of the declared trademark;
5) The section 6 shall be filled in only when, in accordance with the Article 42 of the Law, a priority is requested for the declared trademark;
6) The section 7 shall be filled in with NC goods and/or services for which registration is requested. Goods and services are provided with precise terms that enable them to be identified. In case the list of goods and/or services does not fit completely in the field provided in section 7 of the application, the section is marked and the continuation of the list of goods and/or services is given on an additional sheet, which is attached to the application;
7) The data related to the application signing shall be filled in the section 8 of the application;
8) The section 9 of the application shall indicate data on the paid state duty;
9) The section 10 is marked in the case when, in accordance with points 2.4, 6.2, 6.10 and 7, additional points and/or documents are submitted with the application, which are not mentioned in the previous sections of the application, other documents not mentioned in the sections.
Examples of filling applications:
The list of goods and/or services in the trademark application is intended to indicate the specific goods and services for which state registration of the trademark is requested.
1) In the 7th column of the application form, the number of the class (classes) of the International Classification of Goods and Services (ICGS) defined by the Nice Agreement (numbers http://aipo.am/hy/pages/show/nice1) is indicated, specifying the goods and ( or) the names of the services for which the state registration of the trademark is requested.
Products and services must be presented in precise terms that ensure their identification,
2) products of each class should not contain duplicate names;
3) all the names of the products mentioned in the list of products are given only in Armenian and in lowercase letters. Products are separated from each other by a dot.
4) if the name of the product or service can be used in different classes, it is necessary to additionally indicate:
a) for products: the product's purpose, function, material from which it is made, or the principle of its operation;
For example:
1. Depending on the purpose, the product "burners" may refer to the 11th, 12th, and 34th classes of the ICGS.
2. the product "doors", depending on the material from which it is made, may refer to classes 6 and 19 of the ICGS;
b) for the service, the purpose (field) of activity corresponding to the selected class;
For example:
The "consultation" service, depending on the field, may refer to several classes of the ICGS
namely,
5) The list of goods and services included in the ICGS is not exhaustive. When compiling the list of goods and (or) services for which the state registration of a trademark is requested, the applicant may specify goods and (or) services that are absent in the ICGS, indicating them in a precise and specific wording that enables identification of these goods and (or) services, taking into account the class of ICGS.
6) different wordings may be used to indicate services for the sale of goods (class 35), but terms indicating services for the sale of goods must be used with clarifications of the range of goods sold or the field of activity, for example: "retail food services", "wholesale services of building materials", "seeds’ retail", "retail store services of clothing, footwear, accessories, cosmetics, and perfumery", "retail store services of a wide range of furniture and household goods", "bakery services about the retail sale of bakery products and confectionery", "retail services of pharmaceutical goods ".
7) The following terms may not be assigned to any class of the ICGS:
State fees are charged for legal actions related to the legal protection of trademarks, in accordance with Article 18 (4) of the Law of RA on State Duties, (Account N 900005016200, code 20, Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia), particularly:
To file an application – 30.000 AMD (natural persons and those entities that have 0 to 25 employees pay the state fee with 75% discount (7500 AMD), those that have 25 to 100 employees pay state fee with 50% discount (15000 AMD), while the state fee for legal entities with more than 100 employees is not discounted).
For conducting examination - 40.000 AMD (natural persons and those entities that have 0 to 25 employees pay the state fee with 75% discount (10.000 AMD), those that have 25 to 100 employees pay state fee with 50% discount (20.000 AMD), while the state fee for legal entities with more than 100 employees is not discounted).
In case of additional classes - 15000 AMD state fee is paid for each class (natural persons and those entities that have 0 to 25 employees pay the state fee with 75% discount (3750 AMD), those that have 25 to 100 employees pay state fee with 50% discount (7500 AMD), while the state fee for legal entities with more than 100 employees is not discounted).
The above mentioned fees are paid and submitted when filing the application.
Within three months from the day of receiving the decision on registration of the trademark or its partial registration, 50.000 AMD state fee for registration is paid (natural persons and those entities that have 0 to 25 employees, pay the state fee with 75% discount (12500 AMD), those that have 25 to 100 employees pay state fee with 50% discount (25000 AMD), while the state fee for legal entities with more than 100 employees is not discounted).
The trademark application can be filed in the following forms:
1. by post, in paper documents, at the following address: 5/1 M. Mkrtchyan, Yerevan 0010
2. in person, by paper documents, at the following address: 5/1 M. Mkrtchyan, Yerevan 0010
3. electronically, through the electronic filing system, visiting the website www.aipo.am.
The term of validity of a trademark registration is ten years, starting from the date of application filing.
A trademark registration period may be extended several times for a period of ten years for all goods and services (or) services or for a part of them.
The trademark is protected in the territory of the state where it is registered. Thus, a trademark registered in the Republic of Armenia has legal protection only in the territory of the Republic of Armenia. This means that your trademark can be used in foreign countries even be registered there by any other person.
Residents of the Republic of Armenia have the right to register the trademark in foreign countries by filing an application directly to the relevant office of the country where the applicant wishes to receive legal protection or to make its international registration.
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