CABINET CHAILLOT

Only three months left to « revalidate » your Serbian trademarks in Montenegro

Since the separation of Serbia and Montenegro, a Montenegrin Trademark Law came into force in Montenegro on December 16, 2010.

In accordance with this new law, all trademarks registered in Serbia before May 28, 2008 – date of creation of the Intellectual Property Office of Montenegro – have to be “revalidated” before December 16, 2011.

 

Otherwise, trademarks will be considered as invalid on the Montenegrin territory.

 

The Intellectual Property Office of Montenegro will only proceed to a formal examination of the “revalidation” applications. No notification relating to validity of signs or goods and services will be issued as part of these “revalidation” proceedings.

 

Besides, trademarks will retain the priority date of the corresponding Serbian registration. However, a new Montenegrin registration numbers will be assigned to them.

 

These “revalidation” proceedings do not concern Serbian trademarks for which holders filed some requests with the Intellectual Property Office of Montenegro before the enforcement of the Montenegrin Trademark Law, on December 16, 2010.

 

Requests concerned by these dispositions are:

 

• application for the issuance of a “Certificate of Recognition”;
• trademark renewal application;
• application for a recordal of change of name and/or address;
• application for an assignment recordal.

 However, these trademarks will be assigned a new Montenegrin registration number.

 

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