Laws
The Law of the Republic of Armenia on Geographical Indications
Chapter 4: Appeal against the decisions. Contradiction with other rights. Supervision
Article 31. Appealation of decisions on applications1. The parties may contest any decision made on the application of registering geographical indications, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product within the period of two months after the receipt of the decision, or it can be contested by a third person having information on their registration, within the period of making the decision and the date of registration.
2. The appeal shall be submitted to the Board of Appeal in writing and be justified. It shall be considered to be submitted only when the state fee established by Law has been paid.
Article 32. Discussion of the appeal
1. During the discussion of the appeal, the Board of Appeal shall give opportunity to the parties to submit comments on the arguments of the opposing party.
2. The Board of Appeal shall make one of the following decisions resulting from the discussion:
1) to leave in force the decision that was appealed;
2) to recognize wholly or partly invalid the decision that was appealed.
3. The decision made by the Board of Appeal shall enter into force upon the day of its adoption.
4. The Board of Appeal shall within ten days inform the parties on the decision made, which may be contested in the court within the period of three months following the day when the decision was made.
Article 33. Use of homonymous names
The use of geographical indications or designation of origin registered in totally or partially homonymous names shall be allowed only in cases, when the next registered homonymous name is sufficiently different from the earlier name in view of fair treatment to the producer and prevention of consumer’s confusion.
Article 34. Contradiction with trademarks
1. If the geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product has been already registered in accordance with this Law, then the application filed for registration of trademark for similar products, which corresponds to one of the situations described in respectively Articles 14 or 15, shall be rejected provided that application for registration the trademark has been filed after the date of launching the protection of geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product.
2. The registration of a trademark that has taken place by infringing paragraph 1 of this Article shall be recognized invalid.
3. In situations corresponding to one of those described in Articles 14 or 15 of this Law, the use of trademark, which was filed for registration or appropriately already registered before the date when the protection of geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product started, can co-exist with the registered geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product, provided there are no legislative grounds for recognizing the registration of the trademark as invalid or nullified.
Article 35. Contradiction with trade names
1. If the geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product is protected in accordance with this Law, then the application, filed for registration of trade name for similar products, corresponding to one of the situations described in Articles 14 and 15 of this Law, shall be rejected provided that application for registering the trade name has been filed after the date of launching the protection of geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product.
2. In situations corresponding to one of those described in Articles 14 or 15 of this Law, the use of trade name which was filed for registration or appropriately already registered before the date when the protection of geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product started, can co-exist with the registered geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product, provided there are no legislative grounds for recognizing the registration of the trade name as invalid or nullified.
Article 36. Contradiction with domain name
1. If the geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product is protected in accordance with this Law, then the registration of any domain name, which use corresponds to one of the situations described in Articles 14 and 15 of this Law, shall be recognized invalid, where the registration of domain name took place after launching the protection of geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product.
2. In situations corresponding to one of those described in Articles 14 or 15 of this Law, the use of domain name, which was appropriately registered before the date when the protection of geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product started, can co-exist with the registered geographical indication, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product, provided there are no legislative grounds for recognizing the registration of the domain name as invalid or nullified.
Article 37. Official supervision
1. The Government shall determine the list of bodies authorized, in compliance with legislation concerning the assessment of the conformity of goods, to carry out official supervision over the conformity of goods with names of geographical indications, designation of origin and guaranteed traditional product.
2. The system of official supervision shall be available for any producer.
3. The state authorized body shall publish and regularly update the names and locations (addresses) of bodies specified in paragraph 1 of this Article and Article 38 of this Law in the “Industrial Property” Official Bulletin.
Article 38. Supervision over the provision of technical requirements
1. The Government shall determine the list of bodies authorised and responsible both for establishment of technical requirements for various types of goods, as well as for establishment of general principles, stages and procedures of the supervision carried out over the compliance with technical requirements in accordance with the provisions of this Law.
2. Supervision over the compliance with technical requirements for geographical indications, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product, which geographical zone is the Republic of Armenia, shall be carried out by the bodies specified in Article 37 of this Law, and/or by one or more than one body that supervises the goods’ certification functions, before putting the goods into commercial circulation.
3. Supervision over the compliance with technical requirements for geographical indications, designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product, which geographical zone is outside the territory of the Republic of Armenia, shall be carried out by the bodies in the country of origin or by one or several respective competent bodies and/or one or more than one certification bodies, before putting the goods into commercial circulation.
4. The certification bodies specified in paragraphs 1 and 2 of his Article should be accredited in accordance with defined procedure.
Article 39. Application of indications, marks and symbols
1. The geographical indication or designation of origin protected under this Law may be used only by persons entitled to use that particular geographical indication or designation of origin.
2. The products, originating from the Republic of Armenia and having names of geographical indications and designation of origin protected by this Law, can be put into market circulation by using the indication “Protected geographical indication” or in respective cases “Protected designation of origin” and/or the national symbol established by the Government of the Republic of Armenia.
3. The products, produced in a third country and having names of geographical indications and designation of origin protected by this Law, can be put into market circulation by using the indications envisaged by paragraph 2 of this Article.
4. Only those producers that comply with technical requirements shall have the right to refer to the guaranteed traditional product on the labels of the product, in the advertisement or accompanying documents.
5. Where the guaranteed traditional product is referred to, then the label of the goods produced in the Republic of Armenia can have the indication “Protected guaranteed traditional product” and/or the national symbol established by the Government of the Republic of Armenia.
6. The indications envisaged by paragraph 5 of this Law shall be applicable also for the guaranteed traditional product produced outside the Republic of Armenia.
Article 40. The conditions for using the names of guaranteed traditional product
1. The name of the guaranteed traditional product cannot be used, starting from the date of publication of the application of guaranteed traditional product, for labeling that particular product, when its technical requirements comply only with the conditions of paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of Article 39 of this Law. However, the use of the names of registered guaranteed traditional products, that do not comply with registered technical requirements, may continue without the writing “Protected guaranteed traditional product” or respective national symbol.
2. The guaranteed traditional product may be registered by reserving the name of the product which complies with the published technical requirements, if the group has requested so in its application for registration and, if the substantive examination carried out in accordance with Article 26 of this Law has not revealed that the name for a similar product is well-known, is used legitimately and in significant economic scales. Starting from the date when the application for the registration of guaranteed traditional product was published, that particular name cannot be used on the labels of similar goods not complying with technical requirements, even without the writing “Protected guaranteed traditional product” or respective national symbol.
3. If the guaranteed traditional product was registered in only one language, then the applying group can specify in their technical requirements, that during the commercialization of the product the label may, along with the original name of the product, contain indications in other languages, which also denotes, that the product is obtained (prepared, produced) in accordance with the traditions of the country from where the application was filed, in cases, when the country of origin of the product is not the Republic of Armenia.
Article 41. Introducting changes to the technical requirements
1. The group, which complies with paragraph 2 of Article 12 of this Law and has legitimate interests, may request for introducing changes to the technical requirements for the geographical indication or designation of origin, especially in view of the developments in scientific and technical knowledge. The changes may be requested for the purpose of reviewing the territorial bounderies. The changes requested for and their justifications shall be described in the respective application.
2. If the changes requested for, in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article, assume one or more than one changes to the unified document described in clause 2 of paragraph 1 in Article 18, then the request for introducing changes, shall be subject to the procedures specified by Articles 22, 25 and 26 of this Law.
3. If the changes requested for in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article do not assume any changes to the single document, then the following rules shall apply:
1) if the geographical zone is located within the territory of the the Republic of Armenia, then the applicant shall submit the decision of the competent body on approving the changes;
2) if the geographical zone is located outside the territory of the the Republic of Armenia, then the applicant shall submit evidence that the changes were approved in the country of origin.
4. The state authorized body shall enter the changes into the State Register for protected geographical indications or in the State Register for protected designation of origin and publish all changes and justifications in the “Industrial Property” Official Bulletin.
5. The application on introducing changes to the technical requirements for the guaranteed traditional products can be submitted by the group complying with paragraph 2 of Article 12 of this Law. The application on introducing changes shall prove the existence of legitimate economic interest, contain the description and justification of the changes requested for.
6. The application on introducing changes submitted in accordance with paragraph 5 of this Article shall be subject to the procedures specified by Articles 22, 25 and 26 of this Law.
7. If the changes submitted in accordance with paragraph 5 of this Article are not essential, then the state authorized body can make the decision on approving or rejecting those changes without the application of the procedures envisaged by Articles 25 and 26 of this Law. The changes adopted shall be published in “Industrial Property” official journal.
8. When discussing the changes submitted in accordance with paragraph 5 of this Article, then, except for the objections specified by this Law, those objections should be considered which prove the existence of economic interest in the production of guaranteed traditional product.
9. Where temporary changes to the technical requiremensts are requested due to the adoption of sanitary or phyto-sanitary obligatory means by the state authorized bodies, then:
1) the application for introducing changes to the geographical indications or designation of origin shall be considered in accordance with the procedure envisaged by paragraph 3 of this Article;
2) the application for introducing changes to the guaranteed traditional product shall be considered in accordance with the procedure envisaged by paragraph 7 of this Article.
10. The application on introducing changes in accordance with paragraph 1, or in respective cases 5 or 9 of this Article, shall be submitted to the state authorized body. The procedure for submitting and discussing the application on introducing changes to the technical requirements shall be established by the Government.
Article 42. Prohibition of use of names of geographical indications, designations of origin and guaranteed traditional products
1. Any physical or legal person who proves that the use of the protected t on goods deprived of relevant characteristics cause direct or indirect damage to his rights in natural or processed goods may file a claim with the court for prohibition of use of that name or indication.
Article 43. Cancellation of registration, invalidation of protection and revocation of right of use
1. If as a result of supervision according to Articles 37 or 38 of this Law it is revealed that the technical requirements are no more met in goods bearing geographical indication or designation of origin registered according to this Law or guaranteed traditional product then the assessing body starts a procedure for cancellation of registration, invalidation, or as the case may be the revocation of right to use the name or indication.
2. Any interested physical or legal person may file a claim with a court for the cancellation of registration of geographical indication or designation of origin or guaranteed traditional product, invalidation of protection, or as the case may be the revocation of right to use the name or indication.
3. The provisions of paragraph 2 of this Article shall apply mutatis mutandis to the associations of protection of rights of consumers or producers provided that they are established at least six months before.
