From the latest news release by Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) comes some information from Ethiopia, a jurisdiction that features all too infrequently on this weblog:
If any readers have direct experience of trade mark registration and enforcement in Ethiopia, Afro Leo will be delighted to hear from them."The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) announced that new Regulations were published in Ethiopia, bringing into force the Trademark Registration and Protection Proclamation 2006, dated July 7, 2006 [do any readers know why the time-lag was so long?].
The Regulations have required owners of trademarks filed under the old law, namely before 7 July 2006, to re-register their existing registrations. This applies to all cases filed prior to 7 July 2006, irrespective of whether they have been renewed since. The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) confirmed that the deadline for re-registering cases registered under the old law will be June 18, 2014 [warning for trade mark proprietors: that's little over three months from now]. The EIPO will not be accepting applications for re-registration after that date.
Accordingly, the trademark registrations in Ethiopia will be extended from 6 to 7 years, and provision is made in the Regulations for the amendment of the term of registrations filed between July 7, 2006 and December 24, 2012. Moreover, the EIPO announced that it is now accepting applications for amendment of such registrations, but the deadline for amending such cases will also expire on June 18, 2014.
The EIPO has clarified the status of registrations which became due for renewal between December 24, 2012 and June 18, 2014".
