The draft contains a substantive amendment regarding geographical indications. According to the previous draft, it was proposed that if the geographical indications are included in the trademark and have taken protection in Armenia or outside of Armenia, such applications should be rejected: the RA Deputy Minister of Economy Rafael Gevorgyan said during the debate of the package on Making Amendments and Addenda to the Law on Trademarks and on Amending the RA Civil Code during March 27 sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Regional and Eurasian Integration in the second reading.
According to him, the substantive amendment is that the strictness has been removed from several articles.
According to the draft, as a basis for trademark registration-rejection, it is also proposed to define the presence of geographical indication, place of origin and guaranteed traditional product name in use outside the Republic of Armenia, on the other hand, it is mentioned as a condition that the products and services submitted for registration must be identical or similar to products for which a geographical indication, place of origin or traditional guaranteed product is registered. In other words, the provision proposed by the draft does not define that they are preserved in the RA territory, it is not even known whether they are preserved outside the RA territory or not.
The Committee endorsed the draft proposed and revised by the Government.
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National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia