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News
- 09.07.2010 ECTA round table meeting in Riga
On the 9th of
July 2010 ECTA Round table meeting took place in Riga. It was organized by ECTA
in cooperation with OHIM and national trade mark institutions of the Baltic
States on purpose to promote the discussion on EU trademark system. During the
Round Table meeting several themes regarding Community trade marks, advantages
and disadvatages of the national, CTM and international registration procedures
as well as questions of harmonization of the trade mark systems were discussed.
Within the meeting
the representatives of law firms and patent bureaus of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania had a chance to talk over some current matters referring to the
cooperation with OHIM
Vice President Peter Lawrence
and ECTA First Vice President Domenico
De Simone.
- 12.06.2010 Latvia has ratified the Patent Law Treaty
On the 12th of June
2010, the Patent Law Treaty (PLT) has entered into force for Latvia. The Patent Law Treaty was concluded on 1
June 2000 in Geneva.
Its aim is to promote international cooperation in the field of protection of inventions
by simplifying and harmonizing formal procedures regarding grant of a patent and
keeping patent in force in different countries. The PLT refers mainly to the patent
grant procedure at the patent office and regulates such formalities as ascertainment of a patent application filing date, the form and
content of a patent application, representation and others.
By the 13th of June 2010 the Patent
Law Treaty had 25 contracting states, and was signed by 59 states.
- 29.04.2010 Seminar „Enforcement of
the Intellectual Property Rights and Legal Proceedings”
On the 27th - 29th of April 2010 seminar
entitled „ Enforcement of the Intellectual Property Rights and Legal Proceedings”
took place in Riga.
It was organized by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia,
supported by the Government of Norway within the project „Technical Support for
the Introduction of Acquis communautaire”.
One of the main issues of the seminar was the introduction
to Latvia
of the Directive 2004/48/EC of 29
April 2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the enforcement of
intellectual property rights. Some other questions referring to the evidences
and measures for preservation of evidences, compensation and court expenses were also discussed during the seminar.
Among the speakers there were the representatives of the European Commission
and the Patent Office of the Republic
of Latvia. On behalf of
our firm lawyer Ms. Maria Makeeva took part in the seminar.
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06.07.2009 A new regulation concerning the supplementary protection certificates for medicine comes into force
As
of July 6, 2009 a new regulation concerning the supplementary
protection certificates for medicine comes into force. The Regulation
469/2009 is a codified version of the previous Regulation 1768/92 of
June 18, 1992, which has been already substantially amended several
times. The aim of the codification is clarity and rationality of the
present version of the Regulation.
- 16.03.2009 Singapore trademark law treaty comes into force
On March 16, 2009 the Singapore trademark law treaty comes into force in the Republic of Latvia.
To be noted that the Singapore TLT provides for relief measures when an
applicant or a holder has missed a time limit in an action for a
procedure before the Office. This provision is an important addendum,
since in accordance with Singapore TLT Contracting Parties must make
available, at their choice, at least one of the following relief
measures: extension of the time limit, continued processing and
reinstatement of rights if the failure to meet the time limit was
unintentional or occurred in spite of due care required by the
circumstances.
Singapore trademark law treaty has many
innovations in comparison with the Trademark Law Treaty of 1999, particularly such as that Singapore law treaty relates to
all types of trademarks and that the trademark owners now have a secure
possibility to use different protective mechanisms in cases when terms
are missed.
As regards Latvia now - in case the applicant has
missed the term for payment of the official fee for the renewal of the
registration term of a trademark as well as other time limits in
relation to trademarks, the applicant is able to file a request for
re-establishment of rights to the Latvian Patent Office. In case the abovementioned request is satisfied, the
applicant can pay the appropriate official fee together with a
corresponding surcharge and therefore keep the rights for the trademark
by.
Singapore trademark law treaty is available at the following link:
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/singapore/singapore_treaty.html
-
01.09.2008 Changes in Madrid system
Starting
from September 01, 2008 the amendment to Article 9 sexies of the Madrid
Protocol, to the Common Regulations under the Madrid Agreement and
Protocol came into force, which repeals the safeguard clause, thus
introducing some changes into the Madrid system worth paying attention
to.
For Latvia being a member state of both Madrid Agreement
and Madrid Protocol, the amendment of Article 9 sexies is of direct
influence there on. Below is a brief overview of the new system thus
introduced. The essence of change is that starting from September 01,
2008, in states that simultaneously are member states of both Madrid
Agreement and Madrid Protocol procedure will be governed by Madrid
Protocol provisions, opposite to previously established Madrid
Agreement dominance. The above will result in some changes both in
procedural and financial aspects for applicants seeking their trademark
protection on the international level. Thus, starting from September
01, 2008, the basis for international trademark application in
countries, that are member states of both Madrid Agreement and Madrid
Protocol, could be also national trademark application. Moreover,
applications might further on be drafted not only in French, but also
in English. Amendment of Article 9 sexies leads also to possibility of
filing international application designating member states of both
Madrid Agreement and Protocol, directly to International Bureau (WIPO),
which was previously prohibited, due to the dominance of Madrid
Agreement. The above change resulted also in the increase in relevant
fees from 73 CHF to 100 CHF per state and per additional class
exceeding three. To be noted however, that individual fee if that is
requested by Article 8. (7) of Madrid Protocol is not to be paid as of
September 01, 2008. As provided by WIPO Information Notice, these new
amounts will apply in all situations where the standard fees are to be
paid, under the Agreement or under the Protocol.
-
In
the light of the London Agreement coming into force, we have recently
been rather frequently asked about how the said Agreement will affect
the validation of European patents in Latvia and whether it will be
necessary to file a Latvian translation of the claims of a granted
European patent for the patent to be validated in Latvia. In reply to
the above, we would like to kindly provide our colleagues with the
following information, namely: the relevant provisions of the London
Agreement have actually been implemented into Latvian Patent Law as of
March 01, 2007, thus are in force for quite a while already. In
accordance with the law in force it is necessary to file the translation of the claims
of a granted European patent into Latvian language in three months time
following the publication of the mention of grant. Allow us to stress
once again that only the claims have to be translated. We hope
the above provided will be of an assistance. However, in case of any
inquiry in this or any other connection, please feel free to contact us
without hesitation
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