This is to advise that the Northern Iraq (NIQ) Directorate of Trademarks Department in Erbil has issued new instructions in respect of official fees and classifications of list of goods and services, under No. 3306 on 1 April 2013, published in the Kurdish Gazette No. 161 page 20 effective as of 1 June 2013.
This Notice comes in respect to implementing the Iraqi Law No. 21 for the year 1957 and its subsequent modifications instead of the current regulations issued by the Erbil authorities.
The main points for Trademarks are:
- Cancellation of the current official fees issued by Decree No. 5884 by the Finance Minister of Kurdistan Province dated 26 April 2009, and applying the Iraqi-Baghdad Official Fees mentioned in the amended Law No. 21 dated 1957 according to the classes and sub-classes. These new regulations will result in reduction of official fees in general unless several classes are needed;
- The owner has to specify, on the application, the classes and sub-classes of interest instead of listing the goods in general or main headings;
- All applications will be filed in Arabic and Kurdish instead of Arabic and English, and
- The new forms and the subsequent stages will be provided by the Directorate after being stamped.
It is worth mentioning that the new regulations will be applied on fresh applications filed after the instructions date as well as any application not published.
As for Patents and Industrial Designs protection, since there are no Laws of Regulations, the protection obtained in Baghdad will cover and be enforceable in Northern Iraq.
Should you more clarifications, please contact iraq@qumsieh.com.
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