Evolvement of the Eurasian System of Trademark Protection and of Appellations of Origin

The upper chamber of Russian Duma approved the Law on Ratification of the “Treaty of Trademarks, Service Marks and Appellations of Origin of the Eurasian Economic Union” on November 3, 2020. The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union are Armenia, Belorussia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

The law on ratification will be sent to the Russian President for signature in the course of several days. The law will take effect 10 days after its official publication. The Treaty proper will come in force from the date when the Eurasian Economic Commission receives the last written notice from the member countries on completion of their domestic procedures required for entry into force of the Treaty.

Three months after the Treaty comes in force the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission will have to adopt regulations for filing and examination of the Union Trademarks, of the common appellations of origin and handling the Unified Register as well as other rules required for realization of the Treaty including the fees for registration and other actions.

Based on the list of the fees and the list of actions adopted by the Council the members of the Treaty will establish their own fees and the list of actions after which the competent bodies of the member countries will start receiving applications for the Union Trademarks and Appellations of Origin.

Given that some countries of the Eurasian Economic Union protect also geographical indications the Treaty may be expanded to include that subject matter in the same way as was the case of the Lisbon Agreement of 1958 on protection of appellations of origin and their international registration which was updated by the Geneva Act in 2015 expanding its coverage to geographical indications.