Libya – Trade Mark Office

There is now a regular flow of news of the functioning of the Libyan Trade Mark Office.

The Trade Mark Office resumed work in late March 2013 after two years of inactivity and is now accepting searches, new applications, applications for recordals and is processing previous applications. With thanks to good friends at SMAS the documents to submitted at the time of filing are:

·         A Power of Attorney from the applicant, legalized up to the Consulate of Libya in the country of execution, translated in to Arabic.

·         A certified copy of an extract from the Commercial Register or Articles of Incorporation, legalized up to the Consulate of Libya in the country of execution, translated in to Arabic.

·         10 prints of the trademark.

·         If priority is to be claimed, a certified copy of the priority document issued from a signatory to the Paris Convention.

The Trade Mark Office is following the 8^th Edition of the Nice classification. Products in class 33, alcoholic beverages class 32, and Christmas trees and related products in class 28 will all be refused.  A separate application is required for each class. 

The first Official Gazette (No. 1) was published on 19 May 2013 containing applications filed in October 2008 (applications with number in the region of 15500).  The opposition period is 90 days from publication.  However, in June 2013 there are reports of delays in filing applications due to the significant volume of applications being filed by the local agents.

The part of the Empty Quarter is delighted the Trade Mark Office in Iraq is open and counsels patience to all those seeking to file applications.