A draft text has now been agreed by members of WIPO's Standing
Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and
Geographical Indications, and will form the basis for negotiations
at a diplomatic conference, due to take place in March next
year.
The Trademark Law Treaty (
TLT
) was concluded in
1994 with a view to streamlining and simplifying, on a worldwide
basis, the admin procedures relating to national and regional trade
mark applications and the maintenance of trade mark
registrations.
The
TLT
currently has 33 member countries,
including the
UK
, Germany, the
US
and
Australia.
Those who seek trade mark protection must, as a first step,
observe certain formalities to avoid rejection of their application
and a consequent loss of rights. These formalities normally vary
from one country to another but the
TLT
has
successfully introduced standard requirements to be followed in
procedures before trade mark offices.
However, WIPO says the
TLT
needs to be updated in
order to keep pace with developments in telecommunications and to
create an institutional framework allowing the adaptation of
certain administrative details regulated under the treaty.
WIPO is therefore proposing revisions to the
TLT
,
including:
- provisions on electronic filing of trade mark applications and
associated communications;
- formalities concerning the representation of all types of
marks, including visible signs (and certain forms of visible signs,
such as hologram marks, colour marks, position marks or motion
marks) as well as non-visible signs;
- provisions concerning the recording of trade mark
licenses;
- relief measures when certain time limits have been missed;
and
- the establishment of an assembly of the contracting
parties.
A basic proposal has now been agreed, and will be presented to
the diplomatic conference in March 2006.
