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Amendments to Trademark Laws

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Feb 01, 2017 (Newsletter Issue 3/17)
Mauritius
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Draft Industrial Property Bill


The Government of Mauritius intends to adopt a comprehensive Bill covering all aspects of Industrial Property Rights, tentatively at the first session of the National Assembly in 2017. A Draft version of the Bill has been uploaded on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade here which was open for public comments.

A brief summary of the proposed changes of the Bill is outlined below:

- Definition of a trade mark has been extended to also cover collective and certification marks. Specific grounds for the invalidation of a certification mark were added, but no similar provisions for collective marks are included.
- Grounds for refusal of a trade mark expanded, the most notable being that a mark shall not be registered if it consists exclusively of the shape of the goods or where the shape is necessary to obtain a specific technical result.
- Registration of a trade mark on the basis of honest concurrent use or other special circumstances may be permitted.
- The Bill provides that if a filing formality deficiency is notified, the applicant has two months to correct that deficiency. The filing date then becomes the date of correction of the deficiency, rather than the original filing date.
- The Bill also provides for the division of an application into two or more applications, which will then be treated independently, retaining the original filing date. (Useful when facing citations)
- A remedy for unregistered marks is provided – The earlier user of a trade mark that is neither registered nor the subject of a pending application, will entitle the owner to oppose a confusingly similar trade mark by presenting the relevant evidence of such use.
- International exhaustion of rights – the right to be accorded by the registration of a trade mark shall be exhausted once the product is put in the market by the registered proprietor or with his consent in Mauritius or any other country in the world.

More information can be seen here

Source: www.foreign.govmu.org and Adams & Adams, South Africa