Objection to the trademark application or the action of international registration of a trademark in Ukraine

Keywords: objection, opposition, trademark, appellate chamber, period of opposition The article analyses themain approaches to the practice of filing and the consequences of filing objections ofthird parties against trademark applications or international trademark registrationsbased on a study of the provisions of regulations of Ukraine and foreign countries.The filing of an objection to an application for a trademark is defined as theright of any third party to state its views on the inconsistency of the designation appliedfor registration with the conditions of granting legal protection. It is concludedthat this procedure in Ukraine is not fully harmonized with the practice of the EuropeanUnion: Ukrainian law does not provide for the submission — of observation ofthird parties, when the trademark cannot be registered ex officio. Such observationcan be submitted by any person free of charge, but this person will not become a partyto the proceedings during the designation examination.It is determined that this right in Ukraine can be exercised within several instances:1) Objection of a third party, which is filed at the stage of examination of the designation;2) Objection of a third party, which is submitted to the Appeals Chamber of the NationalIntellectual Property Authority;3) Appeal of the approved decision of the Appeals Chamber of the National IntellectualProperty Authority in court.The article provides suggestions for improving the procedure for filing objections toan application for a trademark or the action of international registration of a trademarkin Ukraine:1) granting the right to third parties to submit to the National Intellectual PropertyAuthority free observations against trademark applications that do not relate to«relative» grounds for refusal of the legal protection of the designation.2) increase the fee for filing an objection to a trademark application or internationaltrademark registration to reduce the number of filing of unscrupulous objections,the purpose of which is to increase the term of registration of the applicant'strademark.3) extension of the terms of payment of the state fee for issuing a certificate ofUkraine for a trademark and the fee for the publication of the issuance of a certificatefor up to five months for those applications for trademarks against whichthird parties have filed objections.