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When creating a trademark, entrepreneurs in many cases do not take into account the requirements of the relevant legislation on trademark registration.

One of the common cases in practice is that the trademark is already well known on the market, the entrepreneur has not yet registered it, submits an application for registration a little later than the start of activity, and when applying for registration is denied due to non-compliance with the relevant requirement.

What should an entrepreneur pay attention to when creating a trademark?

Words, personal names, letters, numerals, figurative elements, shape of the goods or their packaging, combinations of colors as well as any combination of such signs may be registered as trademarks.

A purpose of the trademark is to distinguish goods or services provided by one entrepreneur from goods or services provided by another entrepreneur.

A trademark consisting of a word conditionally refers to the name of the enterprise, surnames, names, other words or set of words, advertising labels. Icons consisting of words processed in standard fonts can be used in any graphic spelling, but if the sign is indicated in unusual fonts that are not used or unknown in the country, its transliteration and translation into the state language or etymological explanation is required.

In what cases may the trademark registration be refused?

We inform entrepreneurs that they will be refused from registration of the following trademarks:

• Signs that are to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value of the goods or services or their other characteristics and also place of origin of the goods and the time of their production;
• Trademarks which are not related to the origin of wines and spirits, but contain a geographical indication identifying them;
• Signs that are consisted of expression that are contrary to public order, morality and ethics, of any elements that can inflict damage to the reputation of the personality, religious and state symbols;
• Trademarks which consist exclusively of signs or indicators used in the trading activities of the Republic of Azerbaijan for many years;
• Trademarks that may confuse the consumer, notably as to the nature, quality or geographical origin of the goods or service.

In case of refusal of registration, the entrepreneur is either forced to change the already well-known sign, or does not change and continues to use it without registration. In this case, the entrepreneur may face certain business risks in the future.

For this reason, entrepreneurs are advised to take into account the requirements of the relevant legislation before creating a trademark and reduce the business risks that they may face in the future.

About the author: Emin Musayev is a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property, contracts, and corporate law and currently works at Legalize Law Firm. For more information about the author please see the following link: https://legalize.az/team/emin-musayev

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