Trademark registration in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz Republic, commonly known as Kyrgyzstan, is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is a member of the Commonwealth of the Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Turkic Council, the Türksoy community, and the United Nations. The country’s transition economy is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas along with deposits of gold, coal, and uranium. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of trademark registration in Kyrgyzstan.
Trademark registrable in Kyrgyzstan
Trademark registrable in Kyrgyzstan may be distinctive and graphically representable signs, such as words, names, acronyms, letters, numbers, devices, combinations or shades of colors, three-dimensional forms, the three-dimensional form of a good or its packaging, and any combination of the above signs.
Types of trademark registrable in Kyrgyzstan include trademarks (goods and services), collective marks.
Required documents for trademark registration in Kyrgyzstan
Required documents for trademark registration in Kyrgyzstan include:
- A signed, notarized, and legalized Power of Attorney (POA);
- A request for registration of a trademark in Kyrgyzstan;
- Detailed information about the applicant;
- Trademark sample;
- A list of the goods and the corresponding classes;
- A certified priority document (If any).
The procedure of trademark registration in Kyrgyzstan
After receiving the trademark application in Kyrgyzstan, the examiner at the IP Office of Kyrgyzstan will check the registrability of the trademark. Specifically, there will 2 examinations: Formality and Content.
The formality examination in Kyrgyzstan will take about 4 months to complete. The substantive examination (content) will take about 9-10 months.
After the examinations, if there are no errors detected, the trademark will be published and the applicant will receive the trademark certificate in 2-3 months.
Currently, there is no official procedure for filing an opposition in Kyrgyzstan.
Nonetheless, any third parties who feel like their rights are violated may file their observations during the whole examination procedure and before the decision is taken by the Patent Office to oppose the registration of the mark.
In addition, in respect of International Registrations, the applicant may also oppose in the form of an informational letter containing arguments against the mark. These arguments are taken into account in the frame of trademark examination at the discretion of the examiner.
A trademark in Kyrgyzstan is valid for 10 years from the date of filing and can be further renewed every 10 years.
The trademark owner needs to file for renewal of the trademark 12 months before the deadline or 6 months after the deadline upon payment of a late filing fee.
Reinstatement of a lapsed trademark (after expiration of a grace period) is not possible.
Note:
The entire procedure of trademark registration in Kyrgyzstan takes about 14 to 17 months to complete.
For foreign applicants, it is necessary to perform the trademark prosecution in Kyrgyzstan through a registered Kyrgyzstani trademark attorney.
Kyrgyzstan is also a member state of the Madrid Protocol. Accordingly, the applicant can register their trademark through the Madrid System to obtain protection in Kyrgyzstan.
Use requirement of the trademark in Kyrgyzstan
The applicant is not required to use the trademark before registration to be able to file for trademark registration in Kyrgyzstan.
However, after registration, the trademark owner needs to use the trademark on a commercial scale for 3 consecutive years if they don’t want the trademark to be vulnerable to cancellation from third parties.
You can see a list of Kyrgyzstan IP firms here.