AGIP Participates in INTA 134th Annual Meeting in Washington D.C

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1 January 2012 INTA Thanks AGIP for its Dedication, Commitment and Support to its Educational Programs and Services AGIP Announces Winner of Test your Trademark Logo Knowledge Competition Oman no Longer Requires Legalization of Foreign Public Documents India Announces Requirements for Registering a Trademark Page 2 Page 3 Page 3 Page 3 AGIP Participates in INTA 134th Annual Meeting in Washington D.C 3. Dima Naber (Regional Office) 4. Nabil Salame (Montreal Liaison Office) 5. Ahmad Hussein (Morocco Office) 6. Amjad Husseini (UAE Office) 7. Khaled Battash (Egypt Office) 8. Amro Hattab (Jordan Office) 9. Ali Hijazi (Libya Office) 10. and Ridab Abutaleb (China Office) will be participating in the International Trademark Association (INTA) 134th Annual Meeting in Washington D.C, May 5-9, The following AGIP members will be attending this event: 1. Luay T. Abu-Ghazaleh 2. Charles Shaban (Regional Office) AGIP delegation will be staying at the Renaissance Washington, D.C. Downtown Hotel (Headquarter Hotel); Mount Vernon Square A & B Meeting Rooms will be prepared especially to host AGIP meetings with its clients or receive your inquiries about China and our offices worldwide. In order to schedule a meeting with one or more of AGIP representatives, please contact us at inta@agip.com 1

2 INTA Thanks AGIP for its Dedication, Commitment and Support to its Educational Programs and Services AMMAN - In appreciation and recognition for his service on the board of directors of the International Trademark Association (INTA), Mr. Charles Sha ban, Executive Director of Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property received a thank you letter from Mr. Alan Drewsen, INTA Executive Director. In the letter Mr. Drewsen commended the role played by Mr. Sha ban during his participation in the Board Meetings in 2011 including ICANN s proposal to expand the domain name system and INTA s efforts to ensure adequate protection for trademarks; the new OHIM initiatives and advocacy for the passage of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Mr. Drewsen also stressed on Mr. Sha ban significant involvement in the 2011 Government Affairs Program held in Washington, DC which played a big role in getting INTA s message across to influential government officials, policy advocates and decision makers. Also Mr. Drewsen thanked AGIP for its dedication, commitment and support to INTA s educational programs and services such as the Consumer Awareness Campaign. Mr. Sha ban stated: We, at AGIP, are really proud to be on the Board of Directors of INTA. We promise to be as active as possible during this year and future. It is really an honor. AGIP Announces Winner of Test your Trademark Logo Knowledge Competition AMMAN - Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property announced the winner of its Test your Trademark Logo Knowledge Competition. Mr. Ahmed Subeihi, employee at Umniah was able to get all answers right and was awarded with a Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Laptop (TAGITOP), the first state-of-the-art Arab laptop. Mr. Subeihi expressed his happiness after winning the first prize saying: I would like to thank AGIP for this wonderful and useful competition. For sure I will participate again and enrich my knowledge even more. Meanwhile, Mr. Charles Sha ban, AGIP executive director said: We are really excited with the positive reception the competition gained from around the world and we have decided to have the competition four times a year to let more people enjoy this educational contest. Fulfilling its role as a leading firm in IP protection and upon the clear directives of HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, AGIP is bearing the responsibility of introducing youth to the world of trademarks, he added. Around 55 participants took part in the event from Germany, US, India, UAE and Jordan in addition to others in which they had to test their knowledge of trademark logos. Having successfully launched the first quiz, AGIP is pleased to introduce its second quiz as well. The second quiz is taking place January 3, 2012 through April 3, 2012, and it will be accessed through the following link: aspx?lang=en If you are interested in seeing how you made out with the first quiz, please find below the correct answers: A: Audi B: Barbie U: WII U Name (Nintendo U Name) G: AGIP Gaz H: HP A: Sony Vaio Z: Nissan Z A: Asics L: Lego E: E-Entertainment H: Hermes I: Fine N: Netscape T: Accenture E: Dell L: Eli Lilly L: L Oreal E: ESPRIT C: LBC T: Tesco U: United Airline A: LA Gear L: Louis Vuitton P: Pirelli R: Reebok - RBK O: HBO P: PayPal E: Internet Explorer R: Toys R US T: T. Mobile Y: Ebay Among the Top-10 participants who submitted correct answers, there was finally a competition between two participants who submitted all the correct answers. Below you will find the top-10 participants of Test Your Trademark Logo Knowledge : 1. Ahmed Subeihi 2. Majed Khressat 3. Hamzeh Sheikhhasan 4. Lina Shehadeh 5. Sayah Abdalmajeed Al-Majali 6. Waddah Shamrookh 7. Rasha Abu Mazier 8. Damian Broadley 9. Ahmad Mustafa 10. Ammar Redwan Saleh For more information, please visit: Recognized regionally and internationally as the top Arab firm in the Intellectual Property field, Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property adheres to high ethical and professional standards, and employs an in-house team of qualified professionals, as well as stateof-the-art technology, so as to provide a comprehensive range of IP services tailored to meet clients needs around the world. 2

3 Oman no Longer Requires Legalization of Foreign Public Documents MUSCAT - The Sultanate of Oman announced that legalization of foreign public documents would no longer be required. The Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Omani consulates abroad will no longer provide legalization services for documents if the applicant s country is a member of Hague Convention. This decision came as a result of Oman s accession to the Hague Convention abolishing the requirements of legalization of foreign public documents, and it will enter into force as from January 30, Accordingly, there is no need for legalization by Omani consulates abroad of documents issued by a state court; administrative documents; documents executed before a notary public and official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity. For further information please contact AGIP Oman Office at the following oman@agip.com India Announces Requirements for Registering a Trademark trademark applications received by trademark registries in India. Accordingly, the trademark applications will not be processed unless the following requirements are provided in the application: NEW DELHI Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks in India Mr. P.H.Kurian has issued a public notice stipulating on the required information to be provided clearly in the trademark applications. The public notice has been issued due to lot of deficiencies in To mention the actual description of goods/ services in respect of which the trademark is proposed to be used. Meanwhile, other terms such as all goods/ services, all other goods/ services included in class, goods/ services not limited to will not be considered. To mention the name of owner in case of proprietorship firm, the name of all partners in case of partnership firm, the name of trustee in case of trust and the name of society representative in case of a society. To mention the actual date, month and year in case of User of the trademark. To provide the proper translation/ transliteration of the trademark in case that non-english/ Hindi characters appear in the trademark. The trademark should be clearly visible. ICANN Promotes New gtlds in Washington (ICANN photo) MARINA DEL REY, CA - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is holding today an informal meet and greet with ICANN President and CEO Rod Beckstrom in Washington, D.C. According to the Corporation, Beckstrom will be in town as part of ICANN s ongoing efforts to promote awareness of the launch of the January 12 open application process for new generic Top-Level Domains (gtlds). 3

4 The Beauty of Protecting your Trademark Building a trademark is one of the most initial steps companies take into consideration whenever they intend to start a new business, as few important measures take place to avoid any future problems. Usually, trademarks owners create their own and pay a lot of money for designing new logos, printing brochures, producing, manufacturing, promoting and exporting the new products to other countries and flooding the market. Unfortunately, and after applying all these steps, it appears to trademarks owners that there are similar or identical trademarks in the market and that the conflicting trademark is registered in many countries!! What shall the owner of the new trademark do in this case??!! Such behavior would lead to losing all the money paid on the trademark and facing legal cases would make him feel helpless and in a critical position. Thus, avoiding such problems may be clarified in the followings points: Choosing Distinguished Trademarks: If you look for the meaning of Kodak or Google in your dictionary, you will not find a meaning for such words. These are called Fanciful Trademarks. This kind of trademarks is considered the distinctive and distinguishable type when referring to creativity. The trademarks owners are highly recommended to use this kind of trademarks. The second type of trademarks is Arbitrary Trademarks, e.g. Apple for computers. Apple has a specific meaning, but the list of goods and services related to computer field is not connected to the real meaning of an apple. This makes the word Apple distinguishable in the field of computers. The Third and Forth level of trademarks types are The Descriptive and Generic words. Such types of trademarks are so weak. The trademarks owners must avoid this kind of trademarks as much as possible since it facilitates infringement acts or can be easily violated. Researching and Investigating: The easiest way to check if there are any similar or identical trademarks is surfing the Internet, since you can Google your new trademark, and search for any similar or identical trademarks. Further, there are many online trademark databases such as USPTO, OHIM, WIPO and others that you can use as your search engine to help you find any similar trademarks. Another way to examine your trademark is asking your trademark agent to conduct an official search for trademarks in the countries you are interested in. The official search usually covers trademarks that are filed and registered in addition to pending applications. Such search will provide very accurate results of similar or identical trademarks. Get the Maximum Protection: After choosing, researching and investigating your brand, you may protect your trademark as well by following below points: Choose the Countries: When selecting the countries you wish to seek trademark protection in, you should keep in mind the future plans since most of the trademarks owners stick to their countries or the region around, and eventually, they forget all about their future plans or expansion. Consequently, they lose the novelty of their trademark in other countries as their trademarks were not protected. Choose Class / List of Goods: There are three ways to choose your class: Class Heading: meaning that you have to claim as much as possible the list of goods included in the class. In this way, you can obtain high protection of your trademark. Specify your List of Goods: meaning that you have to claim only the good(s) that you are interested in and thus you can obtain the protection for the list of goods you have chosen. Related Class: There is a relation between some classes at NICE classification. For example, Cosmetics Class 3 and Pharmaceuticals in Class 5. Considering the relation between the class relations; it will lead you to obtain the highest protection of the new trademark. Maintaining Your Trademark: To maintain your trademark protection, you should proceed with legal action against any infringement acts that may endanger your trademark, since monitoring the market for any similar or identical infringing trademarks in addition to legal action will increase your trademark strength. By: Ahmad H. Al-Jaser aaljaser@agip.com Conflict of Interest Department at Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property This Bulletin is published by the Editorial Department of 2011 Reproduction is permitted provided that the source is acknowledged. For inquiries: Mrs. Iman Salameh / isalameh@agip.com 4

5 AGIP Offices AFGHANISTAN Kabul Plot #56, Street# 12/2, Qalai-e-Fathullah, Kabul, Afghanistan P.O.Box:13004, Qalai-e-Fathullah, Kabul, Afghanistan Tel.: / Fax: (through Canada) ALGERIA Algeria Centre Commercial et d Affaires(El-Qods) 9th Floor, Office No P.O.Box: 143, Cheraga, Algiers, Algeria Tel.: Fax: algeria@agip.com BAHRAIN Manama TAG-Org Building, 1002 Road 5121 Block: Suwayfiah 351 P.O.Box: 990 Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain Tel.: (+973) Fax: (+973) bahrain@agip.com CHINA Shanghai 702 A, Bank of Shanghai Tower, 168 Middle Yincheng Road,Shanghai, China Tel.: ( ) Fax: ( ) china@agip.com Beijing P7, 5/F, China Life Tower, 16 Chaowi Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China china@agip.com Hong Kong SUITE /F, OFFICE TOWER CONVENTION PLAZA, 1 HARBOUR RD WANCHAI, HK china@agip.com CYPRUS Nicosia 24 Gregoriou Xenopopoulou Str. Kyza Court, Office 302, 1061 Nicosia, Cyprus P.O.Box: 16270, 2087 Nicosia, Cyprus Tel.: Fax No.: cyprus@agip.com EGYPT Cairo 51 El Hegaz Street, 10th Floor, Mohandseen, Cairo, Egypt PO Box: P.O.Box: 96 Imbabah, Cairo 12411, Egypt Tel: (+202) Fax: (+202) Egypt@agip.com. INDIA New Delhi HL Arcade-3rd Floor, Plot No. 14, Sector 5 (MLU) Above AXIS Bank, Dwarka, New Delhi , India Tel.: Fax: india@agip.com IRAQ Baghdad Mahala 712, Zukak, 25, Building 11/2 Al- Muthana District, Zayona, Baghdad, Iraq P.O.Box: (Through the Regional Office) , Amman 11192, Jordan Tel.: ( ) ( ) Mobile: ( ) ( ) Fax: (Through the Regional Office) ( ) iraq@agip.com Erbil Ein Kawa, in front of Siemens Company, Home No.109/237, Kurdistan, Erbil Tel.: ( ) ( ) Fax: ( ) erbil@agip.com JORDAN Amman 26, Prince Shaker bin Zaid Street, Shmeisani, Amman P.O.Box: , Amman 11192, Jordan Tel.: ( ) Fax: ( ) jordan@agip.com KUWAIT Kuwait Souk Al Kabir Building, 9th Floor, Block A, Fahed Al Salem Street, Kuwait P.O.Box: 4729, Safat 13048, State of Kuwait Tel.: (00965) Fax: (00965) kuwait@agip.com LEBANON Beirut Sanayeh, Anis Tabbara Street, Halabi Bldg. - 1st Floor Beirut P.O.Box: Beirut, Lebanon Tel.: ( ) Fax: ( ) lebanon@agip.com LIBYA AGIP Building, No. 26, Prince Shaker bin Zaid Street, Shmeisani, Amman PO Box: , Amman 11192, Jordan Tel: ( ) Fax: ( ) libya@agip.com MOROCCO Casablanca ESPACE PORTE D ANFA, No. 3 Rue Bab Mansour Casablanca 20050, Kingdom of Morocco P.O.Box: Casa El Hank, Kingdom of Morocco Tel.: ( ) /21/26 Fax: ( ) morocco@agip.com 5

6 AGIP Offices OMAN Muscat P. O.Box: 2366, Postal Code 112 Ruwi, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman Tel : / Fax: oman@agip.com PAKISTAN Karachi Anum Empire 604, 6th Floor, Block 7/8, Shara-e-Faisal, Karachi, Pakistan P.O.Box: Karachi, Pakistan Tel: ( ) /4 Fax: ( ) /6 pakistan@agip.com PALESTINE Gaza Al-Quds Street, Ansar Square, Awkaf Building, 2nd floor, Apartment No. 8+9, Southern Rimal, Gaza, Palestine. P.O.Box: 505 Gaza City, Gaza Strip Tel: ( ) Fax: ( ) gaza@agip.com Ramallah Green Tower Building, Al-Nuzha Street, near Ramallah Public Library P.O.Box: 3800 Al-Beerah, Ramallah, The West Bank Tel: ( ) Fax: ( ) westbank@agip.com QATAR Doha Trans Orient Center Building, Airport Road, Doha P.O.Box: 2620 Doha, State of Qatar Tel: ( ) Fax: ( ) qatar@agip.com SAUDI ARABIA Riyadh King Fahd Road - Olaya District - Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) P.O.Box: 9767, Riyadh 11423, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Tel: ( ) Fax: ( ) ksa@agip.com SUDAN Khartoum Sudanese Islamic Bank Bldg., 6th Floor Apartment No.1, Alqaser St., Khartoum, Sudan P.O.Box: 1623 Khartoum, Sudan Tel: (249-1) Fax: (249-1) sudan@agip.com SYRIA Damascus Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization Building Kafersoseh Villas - The Southern Highway P.O.Box: Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic Tel: Fax: syria@agip.com TUNISIA Tunis Appt. B. 3.2, 7 Rue Chott Errommen, Montplaisir, Tunis 1002 P.O.Box: 1, 1073 Montplaisir, Tunis, Tunisia Tel: (00 216) / / / Fax: (00 216) tunisia@agip.com TURKEY Ankara Tunus Cad. No. 15/4, Kavaklidere 06680, Ankara-Turkey Tel: ( ) Fax: ( ) turkey@agip.com UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Dubai Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Al-Bahar Building 3rd Floor, Entrance No. II Salah El-Din Al-Ayyoubi Street P.O. Box 1991, Dubai, UAE Tel: /4 Telefax: uae@agip.com Jebel Ali Office No.16127, LOB - 16 P.O.Box: 17191, Jebel Ali, UAE Tel: Telefax: uae@agip.com YEMEN Sana a Beirut Street, Faj Attan, in front of Sudanese Embassy Sana a, Republic of Yemen P.O.Box: 2055 Sana a, Republic of Yemen Tel: Fax: yemen@agip.com 6