Laws
This Law shall govern relations concerning the registration, legal protection and use of trademarks, service marks and appellations of origin.
Law on Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin (in force until July 1, 2010)
Chapter 1: Trademarks, Service Marks and their Legal Protection
Article 1. Trademarks and Service MarksTrademarks and service marks (hereinafter “trademark”) represent the designation by means of which the goods and services of a particular legal entity or individual manufacturer are correspondingly distinguished from the same type of goods and services (hereinafter “goods”) of other legal entities and individual manufacturers.
Article 2. Legal Protection of a Trademark
Legal protection for a trademark in the Republic of Armenia shall be granted on the basis of state registration (hereinafter “registration”) in the established by this Law order, or on the bases of recognizing the mark well-known in the Republic of Armenia, or pursuant to the international agreements to which the Republic of Armenia is party.
The right to a trademark shall be protected by the Law.
Article 3 Registration Certificate of a Trademark
1. A trademark may be registered in the name of a legal person or an organization, a physical person or an entrepreneur.
2. A certificate on registration shall be granted to a registered trademark (hereinafter, trademark certificate). The certificate shall be granted to the person on whose name the trademark is registered (hereinafter, trademark owner).
3. The trademark certificate confirms the fact of registration of a trademark, its priority, as well as the exclusive right of a trademark in respect to the goods listed in the trademark certificate.
Article 4. Exclusive Right to a Trademark
(1) The exclusive right to a trademark shall emanate from the time of its being granted legal protection and shall belong to its owner.
(2) The owner of a trademark shall have the exclusive right to own, use and dispose of the mark, and also to prohibit its use by other persons. No person shall have the right to use a trademark protected in the Republic of Armenia, without the authorization of the owner of the trademark.
(3) The owner of a registered trademark shall have the exclusive right to prohibit third parties from producing, using, importing, selling and proposing for sale a trademark or a good designated by that mark, in the process of commercial activity, without his authorization, and also the marketing by other means or storage for the same purpose of the good designated by the mark or of the trademark, as well as the performance of the acts envisaged by Article 22(1) and (2) of this Law, if the trademark is identical or similar to the point of confusion with his trademark and is used in relation to goods
(a) registered under his trademark;
(b) of the same type as goods registered under his trademark.
(4) It shall be forbidden to use, in the process of commercial activity, a particular designation representing a reproduction, imitation or translation of a designation, similar to the point of confusion with a trademark recognized and generally known in the Republic of Armenia in relation to specific goods, and which may be used without the owner’s permission in relation to:
(a) identical goods or those of the same type;
(b) goods not of the same type which, by creating a misleading impression, force a link to be assumed between these goods and the owner of a well-known trademark, provided that such use may harm the latter’s interests.
These provisions shall also extend to cases where an essential part of a designation is a reproduction of such a well-known trademark or its imitation to the point of confusion.
(4.1) Infringement of exclusive rights of a trademark owner (illegal use of a trademark) shall be deemed the use, without permission of its owner, of a trademark in civil circulation in the Republic of Armenia or a mark confusingly similar to it for those goods, for identification of which the trademark is registered or for goods similar thereto, among them the application (presentation) of a trademark or a mark confusingly similar to it:
a) on goods, labels, packages of those goods, if those goods are produced, sold or proposed for sale, are exhibited in exhibitions or fairs or are put into the Republic of Armenia civil circulation by other means or are kept (stored) and (or) are transported or imported into the Republic of Armenia;
b) during providing services or carrying out works;
c) in documents necessary for putting goods into civil circulation;
d) in advertisements and sales proposals of goods;
e) in Internet or other global computer networks, in particular in any addressing means, among them in domain names.
Those goods, the packages, labels thereof, on which the trademarks are used illegally shall be considered fake, imitated.
(5) Paragraph 5 of Article 4 is invalid as of 13.01.2003.
(6) Where an agent or representative of an owner of a trademark, which is protected in one of member states of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (hereinafter the “Paris Convention”) has filed an application of registration or has registered it in the Republic of Armenia on his behalf without permission of the mark owner the latter is entitled to:
a) prohibit its registration;
b) demand the cancellation of the registration of the mark if it has already occurred;
c) prohibit the use of the mark by the agent or the representative if he has not given permission for such a use.
Pursuant to subparagraph (a) of this paragraph the trademark owner may enjoy his right in the process of the application examination until the occurrence of the state registration of the trademark through filing the appropriate request to the Authorized Body.
Article 5. Types of Trademark
(1) Verbal (including words, numbers, letters, names, catchwords), pictorial, three-dimensional (packages of goods, the appearance of the good and the surface), sound and other marks imaging, or a combination thereof, may be registered as a trademark.
(2) A trademark may be registered in any color or combination of colors.
