TRADEMARK REGISTRATION IN TAJIKISTAN

Aizhan MUKHAMMAD

Country Director – KAZAKHSTAN

Legal protection of a trademark in the Republic of Tajikistan is provided on the grounds of its state registration. The procedure of trademark registration in Tajikistan is regulated by the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan No. 234 “On Trademarks and Service Marks” dated 5 March 2007.

Trademark registration in Tajikistan, as well as in other post-Soviet countries takes two stages:

1^st Stage – formal examination, in the course of which the content of the application for compliance with the established law requirements is checked. The term of the examination is 1 month.

2^nd Stage – the examination of the applied designation is carried out after the preliminary examination and takes about 12 months from the filing date.

An application for trademark registration may be submitted by a legal entity or a person carrying out entrepreneurial activity. Foreign legal entities or their representatives should be represented by authorized Tajik patent attorneys.

The competent authority responsible for trademarks registration is the National Patent Information Center (NPIC) of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan.

An application is submitted in a hard copy and should contain:

– application on registration of the designation as a trademark with indication of the applicant’s name, as well as its location or place of residence;

– designation of a trademark;

– the list of goods in respect of which the registration of the trademark is requested and which are grouped by classes of the ICGS;

– description of the applied designation. The application shall be submitted in the state or Russian language. The application shall be signed by the applicant or his representative.

The application shall be supported by: 

– confirmation of a mandatory fee payment in the established amount;

– charter of the collective mark, if the application is submitted for registration of the collective mark;

– PoA for a patent attorney.

Based on the results of the expert examination, the decision on registration or refusal to register a trademark is issued. Upon formal examination, the Patent Office publishes information on the lodged applications in the Official Bulletin “Navidi Patent“. On the basis of the decision on trademark registration, within one month, the Patent Office enters the trademark in the State Register of Trademarks of the Republic of Tajikistan. The trademark certificate is ready within one month after inclusion in the State Register.

Trademark registration is effective for ten years and is renewable.