Tips

As provided in the Law on trademarks and landmarks, “trademark” is a mark that a citizen or legal entity uses with the purpose to differentiate his/her goods and services from others' good and services, and this mark can be expressed by words, images, letters, numbers, 3D images, colors, sound, smell or their combination.

Trade marks must have distinctive characteristics, otherwise the following things that do not have distinctive characters are not considered as trademarks (Article 5, part 5.1):

Trade marks must have distinctive characteristics...

• only letters, numbers, simple geometric images, marks of common use, terms that are not in combination of one another;
• a name determining a particular goods or service; a word describing amount, size, weight, quality, purpose, price of the goods; name or image of the production place, method, and date of production;
• undistinctive form or image of a particular goods and its package;
• names of things of Mongolian historical or cultural heritage;
• full names, pseudonyms, portraits, pictures of historical persons of Mongolia and imaginations directly related to them that are not in combination with other things.

Article 5, part 5.2 of the Law On trademarks and landmarks provides that the trade mark is not registered in the following cases:

• symbols, flags, state emblems of Mongolia and Paris Convention, a member state of the World Trade Organization, full or short names of inter-governmental international organizations, and names consisted of official signs or similar to them names without due permission those organizations;
• full or short names of Mongolian famous persons or names composed of their pseudonyms, portraits, pictures without due permission of that person or his/her successors;
• names similar to State award, medal, and other awards, conformation, official inspection stamp;
• names content of which controversial to the social order and behavior;
• names that can mislead customers with respect to quality of goods and services, their origin and other characteristics;
• names similar to trademarks of the goods and services that were registered or have been applied to be registered in Mongolia;
• names that can mislead customers due to similarity to trademarks of goods with the same purpose that were registered or have been applied to be registered in Mongolia;
• regardless to the type of goods and services, names of goods and services similar to those of common use that due to similarity can mislead the customers, gain in unfair competence, allow benefits, cause damages and broke reputation;
• names that are in expressive controversy with copyright and relevant rights of popular works in Mongolia, and industrial property rights.

However, if symbols, flags, state emblems of Mongolia and Paris Convention, a member state of the World Trade Organization, full or short names of inter-governmental international or organizations, and names consisted of of official signs or similar to them things specific in the Article 5, part 5.1, subpart 5.2.1 of this Law do not constitute the major part of the goods, the trademark can be registered without taking that word or image under protection.

A citizen seeking for the registration of the trademark fills an application statement at the Intellectual Property Office in Mongolian and prepares the following documents: - application statement;

• application statement;
• stamp/ printed mark of the trademark;
• bill of work and service fee. In case if the applicant is a legal entity, he/she submits a copy of the business enterprise certificate in addition to the abovementioned documents.

Source: The Mongol Messenger ©

Lawyer's advice. In cooperation with Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Project Mongolia and its “Legal Education" Academy