May 29, 2012
Kazakhstan
Trademark Law Adopted
The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the introduction of amendments to several legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the matters regarding the intellectual property” (the “Law”) was adopted on January 12, 2012. The Law came into effect on January 31, 2012.
The Law amended, among others, the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Copyright and Neighboring Rights”, the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the Protection of Selection Inventions”, the Patent Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellation of Origin” (the “Trademark Law”), and the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On the Legal Protection of Topographies of Integrated Circuits”.
The basic amendments introduced by the Law to the Civil Code, the Trademark Law and the Patent Law are as follows:
– A contradiction in Kazakhstani legislation regarding the non-use grace period for trademarks has been resolved. Now both the Civil Code (Article 1028) and the Trademark Law (Article 19.4) determine three years from the registration date as the non-use grace period.
– The term of preliminary examination was decreased from two (2) months to one (1) month from the application filing date.
– The term of substantial examination was reduced from 12 months to 9 months from the application filing date.
– The period for which a design patent is issued was extended and is now 15 years from the filing date (prior to the adoption of the Law, such period was 10 years).
