LATISS :: The Law of the Republic of Latvia on Trademarks and Indications of Geographical Origin of July 15, 1999 with amendments of May 01, 2004.

Some of important basical principles of the current Law are summarized and commented by us below :

Types of the trademarks protectable by Law

According to the Article 3. named «Trademarks» any sign may be a trademark in case this sign may be represented graphically and is capable to distinguish goods and/or services of one undertaking from goods and/ or services of other undertakings.

«In particular, trademarks may be:

verbal – consisting of letters, words, also forenames, surnames, numerals;
graphic – pictures, drawings, graphic symbols, shades of colors, combinations of colors;
three-dimensional – three-dimensional shapes, the shapes of goods or of their packaging;
a combination – consisting of a combination of the aforementioned elements (labels and the like);
specific types of trademark (special trademarks) (sound or light signals and the like).»

Peculiarities of the registration/examination procedure of the trademark

A trademark protection may be obtained using national or international procedure of registration.

The trademark registration term is 10 years from the date of filing application. This term may be renewed (prolonged) for the next 10 years period(s).

The examination of the registrability of the trademark is based on the formal requirements to the trademark and on the absolute grounds for refusal of registration.

Accordingly trademarks are not examined for novelty. But the Law provides a po ssibility for any interested person to file an op po sition against registration of the trademark to the Board of Appeals of the Patent office of the Republic of Latvia in the term of 3 months after publication of the trademark in the Official Journal.

Trademark owner's rights

The registered trademark provides exclusive rights to the trademark owner to prohibit other persons to use in commercial activity any sign identical to the registered trademark in relation to goods and/or services which are identical to those goods and/or services for which the trademark is registered. In addition to abovementioned , the trademark owner is authorized to prohibit other persons to use such signs which because of their similarity to the registered trademark ( or because of similarity of goods and/or services to those of the registered trademark) may po tentially confuse the customers in relation of mentioned signs and the registered trademark.

Having the registered trademark the trademark owner also is entitled to prohibit other persons to use any signs ( which are identical or similar to the registered trademark in relation to identical or similar goods and/or services, and liable to create confusion ) in such actions as follows:

use (affixing, attachment) of the said signs on the goods or on their packaging thereof;
offering the goods, or putting them on the market or stocking them for these pur po ses under the said signs;
providing services or offering them under the said signs;
im po rting or ex po rting the goods under the said signs;
using the said signs on business papers and in advertising.»

If to summarize, the general idea of all abovementioned is so, that any use by another person of a sign identical or similar to registered mark in relation to identical or similar goods and/or services, legally may occur only according to the permission of the owner.

Exhaustion of trademark owner's rights

According to the amendments of May 01, 2004 to the Law, which have been done due to accession of Latvia to the European Union, the trademark proprietor has not the right to prohibit use of the trademark in relation to the goods, which have been put into the economic circulation at the territory of the European Union under that trade mark by the proprietor or with his consent.

In accordance with the Law the abovementioned statement can not be applied if the trademark proprietor has the legitimate reasons to op po se further commercialization of the goods, especially where the condition of the goods is changed or impaired after they have been put into the economic circulation.

Some Grounds for Invalidation of a Trademark Registration

Among principles of invalidation of a trademark registration are such as follows: a registered trademark may be declared as invalid if the application for registration of this trademark was filed clearly in bad faith:

«also a person who is the owner of the trademark in other country of the Paris Convention has the right to require invalidation of the trademark, if the owner's agent or representative in Latvia has registered this trademark in own name without the permission of the owner , except cases when the agent or representative has sufficient causes for this action.»

The registration of the trademark may be invalidated if «the trademark constitutes a reproduction, an imitation, a translation or a transliteration, liable to create confusion, of another trademark, which even though unregistered, was well-known in Latvia with respect to identical or similar goods or services, on the filing date of the op po sed registration of trademark (or the date of priority if priority has been accorded).»

When discussing whether the trademark is well-known in Latvia , the knowledge of this trademark in the appropriate group of customers should be taken into consideration as well as such knowledge in Latvia, which has been appeared as a result of advertising actions or any other circumstances promoted its po pularity.

Indications of Geographical Origin

The Law introduced determination «Indications of Geographical Origin». According to the provisions of the Law indications of geographical origin shall be protected without their registration.

Usage of false indications of geographical origin is prohibited by the Law if it may mislead customers in relation to geographical origin of the goods and services.

Community trademark

The Part VIII¹ «Community trademark» is introduced into the Law due to accession of Latvia to the European Union on May 01, 2004. According to the abovementioned Part of the Law the Community trademark registration provides the exclusive rights to the Community trademark in Latvia.

All existing Community trademarks are automatically extended to Latvia from May 01, 2004. The substantial aspect is that if the Community trademark is registered or filed for registration before May 01, 2004, its priority in Latvia is from May 01, 2004. The Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 on the Community trademark of 20 December 1993 determines the scope of rights of the Community trademark protection in Latvia.

The owner of the Community trademark, which is identical or similar to the later trademark, registered according to national or international procedure, has the right to file an op po sition against registration of the later (op po sed) trademark if even the Community trademark is registered in relation to the goods and services, which are not similar to the goods and services of later (op po sed) trademark, but in case when the Community trademark has good reputation in the European Union and if the using of the later trademark in connection with goods and services gives the op po rtunity without rightful justification to use in a bad faith the distinctiveness or reputation of the Community trademark or to make damages to the Community trademark, or if the consumers may perceive using of this later trademark in relation to goods and services as an indication to the connection between these goods or services and the owner of the mentioned Community trademark and this using may damage the interests of the owner of the Community trademark.

In conformity with provisions of paragraph 5 of Article 142a and paragraph 1 of Article 106 of The Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 on the Community trademark of 20 December 1993, the owner of the earlier right to trademark in Latvia, which were obtained in a good faith, has the right to prohibit using of the Community trademark, which is registered or filed for registration before May 01, 2004.

The owner of the Community trademark has the right of its conversion into the national trademark registration. The filing date of the application for trademark registration in Latvia is considered as the date on which OHIM has received the application for conversion of the Community trademark.

The domestic Latvian persons also have the po ssibility to obtain the Community trademark registration. The application for Community trademark registration is po ssible to file with mediation of the Latvian Patent Office.