As the practice has shown, the procedure of the trademark registration on Ukraine takes up to 2-2.5 years. However, such a long term does not affect the exploitation of trademark as far as the term of validity of the exclusive rights begins from the date of filing of the trademark registration claim.
As a result of registration the owner of trademark obtains the title of protection that proves his exclusive rights on trademark – Trademark
Certificate
The trademark registration in Ukraine is carried out by the State Department of Intellectual Property
. The trademark registration claims are filed to theInstitute of Intellectual Property of Ukraine
, which is the structural subdivision of the Department.
Upon the filing of the registration claim the following documents must be enclosed:
- trademark registration’ application form;
- image of the trademark;
- the list of goods and services regarding which the claimant applies for the trademark’s registration. The list shall be compiled according to the International Classofocation of Goods and Services;
Except of these, the fee in the amount as stipulated by the law, shall be paid for the filing of the trademark registration claim.
Any natural or legal person (resident as well as non-resident) is eligible to file the registration claim, in person or through the authorized representative on the ground of powers of attorney. If the latter cases the power of attorney issued for the submission of the registration claim and other actions, shall be enclosed together with the registration claim’s documents.
Each trademark registration claim is examined by the Institute of Intellectual Property in three stages:
- determination of the date of filing of the claim
– thye claim is examined from the point of presence of all the required documents and information, and the fact of payment of the relevant fee is ascertained. In case of suffiency of all the documents and their consistency with the official requirements, the claimant receives the notification on the determined date of the claim’s filing
.
- trademark examination
Here the consistency of the submitted documents with the requirements established under the Law of Ukraine “On protection of rights on goods and service trade marks”, is being checked. The list of goods and services filed eoth the application, is here checked on its consistency with the International Classification of Goods and Services. In case of any inconsistency the claimant receives the notification
where all the inconsistencies are stated. The claimant has the right to correct all the mistakes and amend the materials of the registration claim within 2 months. If the claim’s documents meet all the legal requirements, the qualified examination
is then carried out.
-
qualified examination
is the examination of the claimed trademark on the point of its consistency with the absolute and relative patentability criterions as specified by the law. During the examination of trademark on the point of consistency with the patentability criterions the identity and similarity search is carried out. This is to compare the claimed trademark with similar registered designation, as well as those already filed for the registration. In case of inconsistency of the claimed trademark with any of the established patentability criterions the claimant receives notification
where all the inconsistencies are stated. Within two months the claimant has the right to present his response with argumentation in favour of the registration of the claimed trademark. If trademark is consistent with all the established criterions, and the expertize agreed with the argumentation submitted by the claimant, the claimant
then receives positive decision on the trademark’s registration
.
Upon the delivery of the positive decision the claim shall pay the state fee for the issue of the registration certificate, together with the fee for publication in the state registry in the amount as stipulated by the law.
Upon the payment of fee the information on the issue of the respective trademark certificate is published in the official bulletin “Industrial Property” and is simultaneously included in the state registry. The claimant this receives the trademark registration certificate
and obtains the status of owner of the exclusive rights on trademark.
