Legal protection of geographical indications and a new form of request for trademark and service mark registration

21.10.2020

On August 29, 2020 the amended law on geographical indications came into force. The definition of geographical indications and the procedure for obtaining their legal protection have been revised.

Geographical indication is a designation that identifies the goods as originating from the territory of a certain geographical object, if the quality, reputation or other characteristics of the goods to a large extent are due to geographical origin (p. 1, art. 1 of the Law).

One of the vivid examples of geographical indication in the Republic of Belarus is the name of the mineral water “MINSKAYA”.

From that date non-residents seeking legal protection of a geographical indication through its registration with the National Center for Intellectual Property (NCIP) must be represented by Belarusian patent and trademark attorneys, unless otherwise provided for in international treaties.

The geographical indication registration goes as follows:

  • The preliminary request examination is carried out within 3 months from the date NCIP receives the document confirming payment of the patent fee.
  • The substantive request examination is carried out within 1 year from the date of decision to accept the request for consideration.

If the request is approved, the geographical indication as well as the right to use it will be entered to the State Register of Geographical Indications within 1 month after receiving confirmation of the state fee payment.

Since September 4, 2020, a new form of request for trademark and service mark registration has been introduced by the Regulation of State Committee for Science and Technologies of the Republic of Belarus dd. July 20, 2020 No.8.