New Intellectual Property Office and Procedures in Afghanistan
15-Apr-2012
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Special to ag-IP-news Agency
KABUL - Afghanistan Government announced that the Trademark Registration Department has been relocated from the Commercial Court to the newly formed Intellectual Property Office (IPO) within the Ministry of Commerce and Industry as of April 4, 2012.
The opening of the new Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is expected to be on May 12, 2012.
In the meantime, the IPO is planning to unofficially receive applications and once the office becomes operational it will start giving formal application numbers.
The IPO will enforce the Trademark Law No. 995 dated September 1, 2009 and the new Rules and Regulations which will be finalized and approved by the Afghan Parliament.
In line with this change, some amendments have been made to the requirements and procedures for trademark registration, these changes include:
- Application shall undergo an examination before acceptance; the time frame needed for completing the examination is 15 working days as of the application date.
- The priority will be allowed based on the reciprocity principle.
- The time frame for registration is three (3) months as of the application date.
- The registration will be given only for all the goods/ services falling in the class(s) in which the registration is sought for, and there is no provision to apply for limited goods/ services.
- Applications can be filed with a copy of legalized Power of Attorney; meanwhile, the original document duly legalized and attested by the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be submitted at the time of obtaining the registration certificate.
- All the documents submitted should be accompanied with certified local language translations.
- In accordance with the new system, the official fees will be modified as well. The new fees will shortly be approved by the Afghan Parliament and applied on the applications filed before at the Commercial Court, but not yet completed the procedures.