Registrar – NJQ & Associates

Iraq – Trademark Office Updates on Pending Applications

NJQ & Associates — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 14:19:37 +0000

BAGHDAD – This is to advise our clients and associates that the newly appointed Trademarks Registrar as of last year has started enforcing new practices in the Trademark Office.

Filing and Renewal
The Registrar maintained his decision to discontinue prosecution for all pending trademark applications filed prior to his appointment despite several negotiations and meetings to change this decision.

After several rounds of negotiations with the Registrar, he finally insisted that all applicants must re-file their applications if they wish to maintain their rights because the previously filed applications were not processed with a request for examination.

Please note that to register a trademark in Iraq, it is obligatory to lodge a request for examination for trademarks before filing an application. If the examination result is positive, applicants may submit an application for registration accompanied with the examination report where the application will then be accepted and proceed to publication immediately. More about this procedure can be found here:
https://njq-ip.com/newsletters/2017/08/iraq-updates-on-examination-and-other-procedures/

An applicant can relate the re-filed application based on its older pending application in order to protect its right of ownership against applications filed during the period that falls between the original application date and the newly re-filed application date by third parties.

Any applications that are due to renewal, but their registration certificates are not issued yet, it will be mandatory to re-file such applications instead of filing a renewal application.

Please note that the above decision was made orally and there is no written decree for that matter, and this will be effective on application numbers between 50,000 and 72,000.

Recordals of Change
The Registrar has reinstated some articles in the Trademarks Law with respect to the recordals of change, namely, recordals of assignment, change of name, change of address, mergers, as well as renewals.

Any change to the trademark as above must be published in the Official Gazette after the payment of the official fees of IQD200,000 (approximately $180), and then, the registration certificate of the relevant recordal will be issued 30 days after the publication date.

Said practice will be effective on all pending recordal applications as well as new applications.

If you need more clarifications, please contact iraq@qumsieh.com.

Libya – Updates

NJQ & Associates — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:59:23 +0000

This is to advise that as of the beginning of June 2009, the Registrar has issued new regulations in which he reduced the filing requirements as follows:

Local legalization of documents coming from abroad is not required now, since it was earlier required that any documents legalized by the Libyan Consulate abroad must be locally legalized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This has saved official fees ranging from LD25 to LD120 (around Euro 20 – Euro 80), depending on the country of origin.

Furthermore, a revised and certified translation prepared locally of documents is not needed any more, saving the cost of certifying fees of Euro 55 per document.

According to the new regulations, filing requirements are:

Power of attorney.
Certificate of Incorporation or an Extract from the Commercial Register.

Both of the above must be legalized up to the Libyan Consulate abroad.

Yemen – New Head of Intellectual Property Office

NJQ & Associates — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:07:35 +0000

In an attempt to speed up the registration procedure at the Intellectual Property Office, a new Registrar has been appointed. He is well known to us and comes with high qualifications.

There is also a proposal for an increase in publication fees by 50% now being studied by the Minister. Any development will be reported.

Iraq – Sudden News

NJQ & Associates — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:49:25 +0000

With deep sorrow, we inform you that the Registrar of Trademarks in Iraq was kidnapped by an unknown group for unknown reasons 3 weeks ago, and this has resulted in a delay of the office operations.