MONITORING
During the last years and following the economic and legal changes in Bulgaria as result of the EU enlargement and the need for harmonization of the national legislation with this of the European Union there are a lot of consequences for the business in the field of intellectual property.
Since January 2007 when Bulgaria and Romania became part of the EU all Community trademark registered until that moment were automatically extended to be valid also for the territory of the new member states. All community trademark applications or registrations may be an obstacle for the registration of new similar trademark applications in one of the member states and vice versa all national trademark applications or registrations may be used as a ground for opposition against the registration of similar new Community trademarks.
In 2011 there were significant changes introduced in the trademark legislation in Bulgaria and the registration system is changed to “registration after opposition” procedure. The Patent Office will not make ex officio examination for earlier registered or filed similar trademarks and there will be no refusal for registration if the owners of earlier trademarks have not filed oppositions in the opposition period specified by the law.
Following the above changes the monitoring service becomes as important as registration in intellectual property protection.
Pavlov & Co may offer you the following monitoring services for the territory of Bulgaria:
- Trademark monitoring services – surveillance for new national trademark applications, Community trademark applications or
International Registrations designating Bulgaria;
- Competition monitoring services - surveillance for the activity in filing new trademarks of a concrete competitor.