Registered trademark may be early cancelled in Ukraine either (1) by the owner of such registration by submitting a petition to the State Patent Office, or (2) by any third party through the court procedure via submitting the claim on the grounds of non-use.
According to Ukrainian Trademark Law, if a trademark is not used in full or with respect to a part of goods and services as registered, for three years from the date of publication or from any other date after publication, any person may initiate in court an action for full or partial cancelation of trademark certificate (so-called “non-use cancellation”). Exception is made for cases when the causes for non-use do not depend of trademark`s owner.
For the mentioned purpose, the defendant (the trademark owner) shall provide the reasons of non-use.
Such reasons must relate to the trademark and must make impossible or unreasonable the usage of trademark. For instance the following non-use reasons may be acceptable for court: existence of obstacles to use the registered trademark in respect of good/services such as import or export bans or other restrictions imposed by the authorities; natural disasters, requirements of authorization for business activity in respect of registered good or service etc.
By Olena Gupal,
Patent and Trademark Attorney, Attorney-at-Law
