Pursuant to the provisions of the Articles Nos. 21 and 26 of the Iraqi Trademark Law for the year 1957, the below has been implemented effective on 29 November 2017:

• After submitting a request for examination for a trademark application, and if the examination result is positive, applicants have a 30-day period to commence the registration procedures from the date of advertising of said result. Otherwise, the application will lapse.
• Once a trademark has registered, applicants should provide the required documents within 6 months of the registration date; failing to do so, the Registrar will send a default notice to the applicant allowing a further 7-day grace period to do so, after which the application will be removed from the register.
• Renewal and recordal applications can be made against registered trademarks only. Applications pending registrations are not eligible for such actions.

Moreover, pursuant to the provisions of the Article No. 11 of the Iraqi Trademark Law for the year 1957, accepted trademarks will be published in three consecutive editions of the Official Gazette with one-week interval between each edition, subject for the opposition period of 90 days from the date of the last publication. This regulation is effective following the publication of the Official Gazette No. 557 published on 20 November 2017.

For more information, please contact iraq@qumsieh.com.

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.

1. Scientific name of the product;
2. Trade name of the producer;
3. Pharmaceutical formula of the product;
4. Name of manufacturing company if not the applicant, and
5. Name of local distributor, if any.

The above is required by the Department of Technical Issues for the purpose of endorsing new pharmaceutical product into the country.

For more information, please contact iraq@qumsieh.com.

• When submitting applications for recordal of assignment, change of name and address, and merger, original copies of the required documents should accompany the application;
• A grace period of six months from the filing date is allowed for the late filing of the power of attorney with respect to new trademark applications;
• It is no longer required to provide transliteration for Non-Arabic trademarks. This will not affect previously filed applications, meaning that publication of pending applications will include the transliteration of the mark; additionally, renewal of expired trademarks will show the transliteration on the renewal certificate;
• Applicants are required to submit an examination request for each mark in each class (even if the mark is filed as multi-class application) after payment of the prescribed fees. The examination result is expected to be issued within 10 days from the date of the payment of the examination fees, and
• The Registrar will inform the applicant if any sub-class gets refused.

Should you have any questions, please contact iraq@qumsieh.com.

It is been stated that the filing number will become the registration number of the mark. This new change will apply to pending applications as well as new ones.

Should you need further clarification please contact dubai@qumsieh.com.

Owners of these numbered trademarks are requested, through their trademark agents and legal attorneys, to provide the Trademark Office with documents proving that they are the legitimate owners of these trademarks within a deadline of six months from the above date.

Earlier in year 2003, and immediately after the end of Iraqi War, NJQ had dealt with this subject with much care and sent several circular letters to its clients requesting owners of old trademarks to rebuild the damaged files.

You can find our news bulletin regarding this matter on our website:

• November 2003
• December 2003

Latest reports received from Afghanistan confirm that this country is a promising market with high potentials due mainly to its closure to some of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world, as well as its richness with natural resources.

For these reasons NJQ & Associates find it appropriate to draw their clients’ attention to think of Afghanistan as a highly recommended jurisdiction for their trademarks filing plans.

We may take this opportunity to remind our clients of the Trademarks filing requirements:

1. A power of attorney duly legalized up to the Afghanistan Consulate abroad.
2. Goods & services to be protected.
3. Print of the mark.

The time frame for completing registration procedures is about 6 months, bearing in mind that there is 15 day for opposition after registration.

For more details please send your inquiries to info@qumsieh.com.

The trademark Office has promised to commence issuance of all certificates, finalizing the first 1000 certificate, then to be followed by the same number afterwards and so on.

It is worth mentioning that all trademarks which have been accepted and published in the official gazettes are considered registered and ready for issuance of registration certificates, if there was no opposition filed.

NJQ & Associates will take this opportunity to inform all its clients that we shall spare no effort to follow up all accepted trademark applications whose certificate of registration are due for issuance.

To get more details please contact us at libya@qumsieh.com.

The registration is highly recommended as it comes as a precautionary procedure to prevent any possible shipment of counterfeited goods and products being similar or identical to our clients ‘trademark to enter the Jordanian market. The registration procedures are easy and simple with low official cost. The certificate of registration at ASEZA can be obtained within short period of time and will be due for renewal annually.

For more clarification on this topic please contact email@qumsieh.com.

Accepted trademarks shall be published in the ministry trademarks bulletin and other two local newspapers within 30 days from the approval of the publication form; otherwise the application shall be considered cancelled.

Second: final registration fees for published trademarks shall be collected within 30 days from the expiry of the 30 day opposition starting from the last publication date as per Article 14 of the Federal Law No. 37 of 1992 on trademarks.

Third: This resolution shall be published in the official gazette and shall be effective as of the date of issuance.

Fourth: The Resolution was issued in Abu Dhabi on 14 February, 2010.

For more information please send contact us at uae@qumsieh.com.