Amendments to the Trademark ACT 1996

In order to refine the country’s trademark laws in line with the state of the art internationally, innovative legislation has been introduced in view of the consumer protection and misleading practices by the Irish Government. Major amendments to the Trade Mark Act 1996 were brought in which deal with the following issues:

The appeal period for decisions of the Irish Patent Office (IPO) has been clarified to three months from the date on which the written statement is furnished by an applicant.
The trademarks that have reputation has been amended to remove any reference to the type of goods or services to bring the law in line with the EU Trademark Act which includes both identical or similar/dissimilar goods and services.
Powers of search and seizure of infringing goods have been amended to cover widely open-air markets, making an inventory or preparing other evidence of infringement or potential infringement, seizing anything which the police believes on reasonable grounds used in evidence, etc.
The definition of registrable transactions has been expanded to include mergers which have been dealt with in recent years as a change of name of the proprietor.
The right to claim priority has been extended to a successor in title of the original applicant.
Various amendments to TRIPS agreement have been made which now include trademarks for services and protection in respect of dissimilar goods or services and extend to member states of the WTO as well as those of the Paris Convention for the protection of Industrial Property.
The old Merchandise Marks Act and the Consumer Information Act have been amended and a new act, the Consumer Protection Act 2007 has been introduced to deal with misleading practices causing the consumers confusion with regard to a competitor’s product and the trader’s product or trademark.

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Amendments to the Trademark ACT 1996 – Ireland