Trade and Service Marks

– Law on Trade and Service Marks, No. 858, dated July 3, 2012, as amended on January 2, 2019.

Membership in International Conventions

– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since December 25, 1991.
– Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks, since December 25, 1991.
– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act, since February 14, 1994.
– Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, since February 14, 1994.
– Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, since June 30, 2011.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since March 2, 2013.
– Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks, since December 26, 2014.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), since October 31, 2015.

Filing

Applicant: individuals or legal entities.

Foreigners: enjoy the same rights as nationals, may appoint a Tajik agent, or file directly to the Patent Office (Regulations on Patent Attorneys, Order No. 04.FA of the Director of the Patent Office of Tajikistan, dated January 18, 2006).

Kinds of protection: trademarks and service marks (word marks, device marks and combinations thereof, tri-dimensional marks, sound and light marks), collective marks.

Novelty: the trademark applied for must not conflict with a trademark already registered or filed for registration.

Not registrable: emblems and flags, abbreviated and full names of international and intergovernmental organizations, official control, guarantee marks and test marks, stamps, seals, rewards and other decorations and similar marks which may lead to confusion, marks which are not distinctive, which are generally used as denominations of the goods applied for, generally accepted as symbols and terms, indicating the type, quality, quantity, property, purpose, usefulness of goods, place as well as time of their production and sale, trademarks partially or completely consisting of geographical denominations, which can be perceived as indication of the location of the manufacturer; which are false of misleading for consumers as to the product or his manufacturer; whose content is contrary to humanitarian principles and to morality. The protection cannot be granted for trademarks identical or similar to earlier registered trademarks (or applications) for similar goods in the Republic of Tajikistan or protected in accordance with International Treaties by another person. The protection cannot be granted without the appropriate consent for: titles of well-known works of literature, science and art, surnames, pseudonyms and derivatives thereof, portraits, facsimiles.

Priorities: in accordance with the Paris Convention, including the exhibition priority (within six months after the exhibition).

Classification: international.

Territory covered: the Republic of Tajikistan.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Power of attorney, no legalization (if the application is filed through a local agent);
2. Prints of the sign to be protected (size: 8 x 8 cm) (for black and white trademarks: 5 prints; for color trademarks: 5 color prints and 5 black and white prints; the label specimen can be presented in life-size);
3. List of goods and services, according to the International Classification; one application may include goods belonging to more than one international class (to be translated into Tajik (Farsi) or Russian);
4. Priority documents, if any (to be filed within three months from the filing date);
5. For collective marks: statute of the association.

Electronic filing: not available. 

Electronic signatures: are not accepted (only wet signatures). Scanned copies of signed documents are accepted, however, the original must be sent at a later date.

Examination Procedure

Examination: a formal examination and a substantive examination.

The formal examination is carried out during one month after the filing date and comprises checking the formal requirements and issuing an appropriate decision. A negative decision may be appealed by the applicant within a three-month term.

A substantive examination comprises examination of the similarity in respect to previously filed applications/registrations in Tajikistan and as to registrability conditions.

Amendments and corrections: voluntary amendments or formal corrections may be filed within the whole period of examination up to issuing an appropriate decision. Additional materials modifying the claimed sign or the list of goods as to substance are not accepted, and may be filed by the applicant as a separate application. 

Disclaimers: available.

Letters of consent: accepted.

Appeal: the applicant may file an appeal against a negative decision issued by the Patent Office after the formal examination and the substantive examination, before the Patent Office’s Appeal Board, within a three-month term.

Opposition: as of January 2, 2019 newly filed trademark applications are published in the Official Gazette after the formal examination for opposition. Any interested party may file a formal opposition against the registration of a mark before the Patent Office.

Granting and Protection

Publication: the trademark particulars are entered into the Trade Mark Register after the granting decision, and published in the Patent Office Official Gazette immediately after registration.

Duration – extension: ten years; renewable for further ten-year periods.

Exclusive right: the exclusive right to use the registered trademark belongs to its owner.

Obligation to use: compulsory. A trademark, which is not used during a period of three years after the registration date (or the last date of use), may be cancelled at a request filed by an interested party.

Nominal use: advertisement, publication of trademarks in the Tajik journals, or presentation of the marked goods at exhibitions in Tajikistan, may be considered as acts of use in absence of actual use.

Licenses: license agreement must be in the form of a written contract registered in the Patent Office.

Assignment: must be registered in the Patent Office.

Modification of Protection after Registration

Rights of prior user: not regulated.

Nullification: possible during the whole life-time on absolute grounds, also on the grounds that the registered trademark falls under the category of marks, which are identical or confusingly similar to the following designations: company name or part thereof, or designs which are protected in Tajikistan before the filing date of the trademark application, surnames, names, pseudonyms, portraits and facsimiles, titles of works of science, literature and art, characters or quotations from them, works of art or their fragments, known in Tajikistan, without the consent of the owner or heirs; in the case that a trademark fails to be registered in the name of a legal entity or a natural person; if trademark registration has been provided in the name of an agent or representative of a person who is the owner of the trademark in any of the Paris Convention countries without authorization of such owner; in the case when registration is admitted to be an act of unfair competition; in the case that a trademark has been wrongly registered as well-known, and within a period of five years from the date of publication for other grounds.

Infringement: civil, penal, and administrative provisions provided.

Validation of invalidated mark: not possible.