Iraq- TM News

The Iraqi Trademark  Office started on January 29, 2018, to issue official notifications requesting the re-filing of these applications within seven days & that failure to re-file pending applications would lead to the removal of the application.

Regarding this news, we would like to assure our esteemed clients & Trademark owners that,  the issuance of 7 (working days)  notices started even before 29.1.2018 & we have already reported such notices to the concerned parties, but as compared to a large number of pending applications ( nearly 20,000 applications ), the notices issued up to now involved a very limited number of TMs.

In most cases,  the TM Office is issuing a notice when a new application similar to a pending application has been recently filed, therefore they send the 7 days notice to find out if the applicant of the pending application is still interested in his TM, in which case he will proceed to re-file his TM &  will be granted priority over the other new application.

On the other hand, failure to re-file an application will grant the TM Office the right to accept similar new applications.

In view of the above, please rest assured that, no general deadline for re-filing pending applications has been specified by the TM Office & that we will report to you any such developments once issued.

Iraq Trademark Registrar

For the last few months, the new Trademark Registrar has adopted new measures regarding pending TM Applications, renewal of TMs & recordal of changes:

Regarding Pending TM Applications in Iraq

The Iraqi TM Office decided to discontinue the registration measures of all pending TM applications holding application numbers below 72000.

Accordingly, applicants who are still interested in their pending TM applications should file new applications to replace their pending applications. Such new applications will be related to the previous pending applications in order to provide the TM with priority against similar applications filed after the client’s previous application but earlier than the new application. According to the new procedures, an application for the examination should be filed first & only if the examination result shows that the TM is acceptable & available for registration, the application for registration can be filed

Renewals

No TM can be renewed unless its registration certificate has already been issued. It has also been decided that the renewal of each TM will be published in the official gazette before the renewal certificate can be issued.

For any TM which was renewed, but its registration certificate has not been issued, it will be necessary now to pay the registration fees & then have the TM published in the official gazette so that the TM can be treated as duly renewed & its renewal certificate can be issued.

Recordal of Changes

According to the new procedures adopted by the TM Office, changes can only be recorded against duly registered TMs (i.e. no applications for the recordal of any change can be filed against a pending TM application).

Moreover, changes should also be published in the official gazette, before a confirmation letter of the recordal of the changes can be issued.