On November 25, 2025, the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan ‘On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Intellectual Property Issues’ was signed. The Law will enter into force on January 25, 2026.
The Law introduces legal provisions aimed at:
- introducing a new mechanism for conducting trademark application examination under an accelerated procedure. Under the accelerated procedure, the preliminary examination will be carried out within ten working days (under the ordinary procedure — within one month), and the substantive examination will be carried out within three months (under the ordinary procedure — within seven months) from the filing date of the application;
- extending the period for filing an opposition against the registration of a designation as a trademark to up to two months (currently – one month);
- clarifying the grounds for refusal of trademark registration based on the place where services are rendered;
- allowing the prosecution of an application to be suspended in connection with the filing of an appeal with the Appeals Board or a court;
- establishing the possibility of refusing to grant a patent for an invention at the formal examination stage;
- introducing specialization of patent attorneys in the field of means of individualization and industrial property objects.
Moreover, as of January 1, 2026, new fees for works and services provided by the Republican State Enterprise under the right of economic management ‘National Institute of Intellectual Property’ of the Committee for Intellectual Property Rights of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan were approved. In addition to a general increase in fees, a new feature is the introduction of an additional fee for the acceptance and conduct of the preliminary examination of a trademark application for each designation exceeding 10 items of goods/services.”
