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JURISDICTION REPORT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC


TRADEMARK LAW TREATY NOW A REALITY


Sharin Pablo de Roca JJ Roca & Asociados


Te Trademark Law Treaty (TLT) adopted on October 27, 1994, at a World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) conference in Geneva, was recently ratified by the Dominican Republic as a complement to the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). Te treaty was ratified on September 13, 2011 and entered into full effect on December 13, 2011.


In doing so, the Dominican Republic has joined 49 other countries that, as signatories to the TLT, have modified their legal systems in order to simplify the requirements and registration procedures for trademarks. Te purpose of the treaty is to streamline and harmonise the administrative procedures for national applications and the protection of trademarks. Te treaty does not deal with the substantive parts of trademark law concerning the registration of marks but, rather, simplifies national and regional trademark registration procedures while, at the same time, eliminating formal requirements that are considered to be unnecessary obstacles in the registration process.


Te TLT applies to trademarks for goods and services, including word marks, design marks, mixed marks and three-dimensional marks. Te treaty does not apply to sound marks, olfactory marks, collective marks, certification marks or guarantee marks.


Te provisions of the treaty deal with the three phases of the registration procedure: (i) the application for registration; (ii) changes aſter registration; and (iii) renewal. In the paragraphs that follow we explain the changes that have taken place in the Dominican legislation with the implementation of the provisions of the treaty.


(i) Application for registration Te TLT establishes in Article 3 an exhaustive list of information that may be required by the National Trademark Office regarding the application for the registration of a trademark. Te office may not require any information other than that specifically listed in the treaty. In this respect, there are only slight changes introduced, given that the Dominican Republic Industrial Property Law No. 20-00 already contained very similar requirements. Changes that have been introduced include:


• The National Office of Industrial Property of the Dominican Republic (ONAPI) will now be requiring the transliteration of all trademarks that contain elements or numbers expressed in a writing format different from that used in the Spanish language.


• ONAPI may also require the translation of trademarks that contain, or consist of, words written in a language other than Spanish.


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“A DECLARATION AND EVIDENCE OF USE OF THE MARK MAY NOT BE REQUIRED UNLESS ONAPI HAS REASONABLE DOUBTS OVER THE VERACITY OF ANY INDICATION OR ELEMENT CONTAINED IN THE RENEWAL REQUEST.”


• In the case of design marks, a written description of the design will no longer be requested.


• Registration applications filed in a language other than Spanish should be accompanied by a simple translation and no certification of the translation will be required.


(ii) Changes after registration Articles 10 and 11 of the TLT set forth the requirements that apply to requests for changes in registration of a mark, such as a change of name or address of the owner and recordal of mergers and assignments. In this phase, the only substantial change in Dominican legislation has been the possibility of filing changes to several marks of a particular owner through a single application. Te same is true for renewal requests.


(iii) Renewal Article 13 of the TLT standardises the duration of the initial period of registration, and the duration of each renewal, at 10 years each. Tis has not required a change in Dominican legislation. Furthermore, Article 13 goes on to enumerate the maximum requirements that ONAPI may impose for the renewal of registration. Te treaty expressly states that the presentation of a declaration and evidence of use of the mark may not be required, unless the office has reasonable doubts over the veracity of any indication or element contained in the renewal request. Of all the changes introduced by the TLT in the Dominican legislation, this is without doubt the most significant.


Te other major change implemented as a result of the TLT is that ONAPI will no longer require the legalisation or apostille of foreign documents, except in the case of surrender of a registration.


Sharin Pablo de Roca is a partner in the IP department of JJ Roca & Asociados. She can be contacted at: spablo@jjrocalaw.com


World Intellectual Property Review January/February 2012 71


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