What are the gaps and issues in the Armenian trademark legislation?

Abstract

In Armenia, trademark laws and regulations as we know them today were first regulated more than 20 years ago in The Civil Code of Armenia. Hence, the trademark regulations are somewhat new in Armenian law. There are not many judicial cases or Court of Cassation decisions concerning trademarks. However, the complete and thorough regulation of intellectual property rights and particularly trademark rights are crucial for our business environment. Intellectual property rights are so important that there is an Article addressing the subject in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. According to Clause 7 of Article 60 of the Constitution, “intellectual property shall be protected by law”. Moreover, Armenia is a party to numerous international treaties concerning trademark rights, such as Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883), Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks of 1891 as well as the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement (1989), Nice Agreement (1957) and TRIPS Agreement (1995). By becoming a party to those international treaties, Armenia is committed to certain responsibilities referring to the trademark rights. Besides that, trademark rights in Armenia are regulated by the Civil Code of the RA (hereafter Civil Code of Armenia), by the Law on Trademarks of the Republic of Armenia (hereafter Trademarks Law of Armenia) and by other laws and regulations. Following the adoption of the Civil Code and the Law on Trademarks, several amendments have been enacted in those statutes. However, there are certain omissions and ambiguities in the Armenian legislation. It is essential, that such ambiguities and omissions are clarified.