On October 26, 2016 Olena Gupal, the partner of Orbis, Law and Patent Office, took part in the meeting with the officials of State Service of Intellectual Property of Ukraine as to the procedure of reviewing the oppositions to Refusal of Registration, issued by the Patent Office of Ukraine.
The officials have introduced the attendees to specifics of drafting Notice of Appeal as well as to the requirements to the documents and the arguments to be provided with the Notice of Appeal. There were also presented the case studies by the Board of Appeal members on the said meeting, in particular, in respect of state symbols and flags imitation in trademark applications.
As it is known, the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of the Rights to Trademarks” (hereinafter – the Trademark Law) provides for the absolute and relative grounds for refusal of trademark registration in Ukraine. There are some absolute grounds on which a trademark application shall be refused by the Patent Office of Ukraine. According to Clause 1 of Article 6 of the Trademark Law a legal protection shall not be granted for those marks which represent or imitate official names of States, State symbols, flags, State emblems; emblems and names of international intergovernmental organizations; official signs and hallmarks indicating control and warranty, assay marks, seals; official awards. However, according to the law. these elements may be included in a trademark as non-protective elements, subject to obtaining the authorization of the competent authorities.
During the official meeting mentioned above, there were presented the case studies by the Board of Appeal members, in particular, the officials provided the review of the latest Appeal cases in respect of state symbols and flags imitation in trademark applications. The main problem in Ukraine in this respect is the lack of regulations which would establish the concrete state department being responsible for issuance of the mentioned authorization concerning Ukrainian state symbols.
