Trademark Registration

There are two types of marks: trademarks and service marks. A trademark distinguishes the source of goods and a service mark the source of services. This means that a trade or service mark distinguishes the goods and services of an individual or an enterprise from those of others.

Words, logos, slogans, mottos, names, letters, numbers, symbols, emblems, shapes, designs, features of packaging, color combinations, animations, figurative elements or combinations of those signs and also sounds may be used as trade or service marks.

Figurative elements comprise e.g. designs, pictures, drawings of landscapes, animals, people, things, ornaments, shapes, houses, stars, fictitious beings, geometrical figures and solids: whether real or abstract representations.

Marks, although usually 2-dimensional, may also be 3-dimensional. E.g. forms of containers, holders or packages or the shape of the goods themselves can be used as trademarks.

Proceeding of Trademark Registration

a. The application is filed at the Trademark Office.
b. The application process includes a formal examination, an examination of distinctiveness and a search for prior trademarks. Signs not deemed distinctive in the examination can be registered if distinctiveness has been acquired by use.
c. Prior to registration, the trademark application is published in the “Official Gazette” for opposition purposes. 

Design Registration

Is meant by industrial design (either 3D model or 2D drawing) all formal innovation referring to features of appearance of the product or its ornamentation. I.e, any object that could serve as a pattern for the manufacture of a product and that can be described by its structure, configuration, ornamentation or representation.

Industrial designs make a product attractive for the consumer, and its protection:

Increases performance of invested capital
Promotes economic development
Promotes creativity and contributes to the expansion of commercial activity.
Usually, an industrial design must be “new”, meaning by the concept of novelty a design which is not similar nor identical to anyone else existing.

The process for design registration:
Filing of the application.
Formal and substantial examination.
Publication in the official Journal
Period for the filing of oppositions.
Granting or denial
Generally, once granted, the protection is valid for a period of 5 years, renewable for periods up to 15 years in most cases.

Patent Registration

A patent is a grant of a property right given by the Government to an inventor to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in a country or importing the invention into a country for a limited period of time.

To be patentable, an invention must be new, nonobvious, inventive and industrially applicable.

Not patentable are:

a. Discoveries as well as laws of nature and mathematical methods;
b. Aesthetic designs;
c. Systems, rules and methods for the performance of mental labor, games or management as well as computer programs and
d. Presentation of data and abstract ideas.

An invention can also be an improvement on existing items or methods. Patents may be granted for example for a product (machine, article of manufacture), process, or any new and useful improvement thereof.

Once a patent is obtained, an invention can not be used, manufactured, duplicated or sold without the inventor’s authorization. Patent rights can be enforced in court against third party infringers who practice the invention without permission of the inventor or title bearer.

Procedure of registration of a patent:
a. Application
b. Formal Exam (2 Months term to rectify)
c.  Report
d. Publication
e. Substantive Examination
f. Granting of the patent