Changes in legal procedure concerning registration and protection of TM in Bulgaria

The last amendment to the Law on Marks and Geographical Indications (Trademark Law) essentially changed the procedure for registration and protection of trademarks, which develops before the Bulgarian Patent Office (BPO). The new law inserted the opposition system. The new procedure took effect from March 10, 2011, and it will require in the future strict and regular monitoring over the branding politics of the competitors and the rest trademark applicants.
Under the new system – the expertise in substance (i.e. the physical examination) of trademark applications will be done ex officio only to the so-called “absolute grounds” mentioned in Art. 11 of the Trademark Law (*). If a trademark application meets these requirements, it will immediately be published in the Official Bulletin of the BPO. Within 3 months of the publication, proprietor of an earlier trademark registration/application (as well all other eligible persons, such as exclusive licensee) shall be entitled to oppose the registration of an applied conflicting mark, and for this purpose the proprietor will need to run the so-called opposition procedure against the registration of the applied conflicting mark. It is especially important to know that from the above date the test for prior rights of third parties concerning an applied mark will no longer be carried out by the experts of the BPO. When there is not any opposition lodged against the application, or such opposition is wholly or partly rejected as unfounded based on a final decision of the BPO, the applied mark will be registered immediately.
This model of expertise corresponds as a whole to the expertise that is performed by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) administering the marks and designs of the Community (OHIM)-Alicante, as well to the legislation of many countries in Europe, and thus the conditions and procedures in Bulgaria become synchronized with those existing within the European Union.
The holders of registered/applied marks should take permanent care henceforth in respect to protect their rights personally, or through their industrial property representatives, and they must permanently monitor the published applications and in case of need – to file oppositions against such conflicting marks.
Having in mind the new registration rules, the only effective way for prevention of the interests of the trademark holders is the monitoring on a subscription basis. Without constant monitoring regarding all trademark applications published in the Register of the BPO, the trademark holders will have no clarity at any time whether their trademarks are threatened by lodged identical or similar conflicting marks applied to the territory of Bulgaria by a national (by BPO), international (by WIPO-Geneva) or European (by OHIM-Alicante) trademark registration procedure.
* (1. A sign, which is not a mark within the meaning of art. 9, para.

1 of the Trademark Law (the mark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of others and can be represented graphically; such signs can be words, incl. personal names, letters, numerals, drawings, figures, the shape of goods or their packaging, a combination of colors, sound signals or any combination of such signs);

2. mark which is not distinctive;

3. mark which consists exclusively of signs or indications which have become customary in everyday language or established commercial practice in the Rep. of Bulgaria in terms of requested goods or services;

4. mark which consists exclusively of signs or indications which designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin, time or method of production of goods, new ways of delivering services or other characteristics of goods or services;

5. sign which consists exclusively of: a) form, which stems from the nature of the product itself; b) the shape of goods which is necessary to obtain a technical result; c) the shape which gives substantial value to the product;

6. mark which is contrary to public order or morality;

7. mark which may mislead consumers about the nature, quality or geographical origin of goods or services;

8. mark which consists of or includes flags or other symbols, and their imitations of the Member States of the Paris Convention and flags, or others. symbols, abbreviations, and names of international intergovernmental organizations designated under Art. 6 ter of Paris Convention;

9. mark containing badges, emblems or escutcheons other than those declared under Art. 6 ter of Paris Convention and of particular public interest;

10. mark which consists of or include official signs and stamps the control and security where they are used for identical or similar goods;

11. mark which consists of or includes the name or image of historical and cultural monuments of the Rep. of Bulgaria defined by the Min. Of Culture; 12. mark which consists exclusively of claimed or a registered geographical indication, operating in the Rep. of Bulgaria, or its derivatives;

13. mark which contains alleged or registered geographical indication, operating on the territory

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