Recently, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia have made a collective endeavour to move towards the formation of a regional system dealing with trade marks, service marks and appellations of origin of goods in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Sergey Zuykov explains how it will work.

From 1 September 2021, an application for registration of a trade mark or appellation of origin of goods within the EАEU may be filed with any IP office of a member country. The introduction of the system will reduce the cost and time taken for legal protection of trade marks and will help Eurasian brands to enter the common market.

A regional system

The Treaty on Trade Marks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin of Goods of the Eurasian Economic Union, which was signed in Moscow on 3 February 3 2020, and the relevant Federal law on its ratification became milestones in the creation of a regional system of legal protection of visual identity. They constitute one of the main areas of Eurasian cooperation in the field of intellectual property.  

It does not matter with which country’s office the application is filed: it is examined in each country separately. The result of the examination, however, is communicated to the applicant through the Office where the application was filed. But if at least one country delivers a negative opinion, the mark cannot be registered.

Fees

The application fee is set by each member state basing on the unified rates approved by the Inter-state Council and starts at CHF70 for the filing and CHF200 for the examination of the trade mark for each country. Thus, the minimum amount would be around CHF1,000.

The fee for the registration and the issuance of the certificate will be CHF150. Upon filing, the national Office will process the application, conduct a formal examination and transfer it to the other offices for the examination of the trade mark and granting of legal protection across the EAEU.

Implementation

The first step towards actual implementation of the agreement was the decision of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission “On Some Issues of Implementation of the Treaty on Trade Marks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin of Goods of the Eurasian Economic Union” of 3 February 2020.

The Decision is an instruction manual that has been developed by representatives of the national IP offices of the Union. It regulates the procedures related to registration and legal protection of trade marks and appellations of origin of goods.

Also, the list of legally significant actions and rates of fees for their fulfilment is approved. On the basis of this list, the countries will establish corresponding fees in their national legislations.

The efficiency of implementation of the Treaty on Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin of Goods of the Eurasian Economic Union will depend on the interaction of the Eurasian Economic Commission and national patent offices as well as on the development of harmonised processes within the framework of the national trade mark offices. But, hopefully, the new route will turn out to be very useful to brand owners.

By Sergey Zuykov of Zuykov and Partners LLC, who is a MARQUES member