Mikhailyuk, Sorokolat & Partners

Patent and Trademark Attorneys

Regional principle of exhaustion of trademark rights in Kyrgyzstan

Regional principle of exhaustion of trademark rights in Kyrgyzstan August, 25, 2017

Regional principle of exhaustion of trademark rights in Kyrgyzstan

On August 12, 2017 the provisions of Section V of the Protocol on the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights entered into force in the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic (Appendix No. 26 to the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union of May 29, 2014).

Section V of the above-mentioned Protocol stipulates that the regional principle of exhaustion of the exclusive right to a trademark, the trademark of the EAEU, shall be applied in the territories of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter referred to as the "EAEU"). In accordance with this principle the use of the trademark, EAEU trademark in relation to goods that have been legally introduced into civil circulation in the territory of any of the member states directly by the rightholder or other persons with the rightholder's consent shall not be considered as violation of the exclusive rights to a trademark.

Thus, the importation of goods marked by the protected trademarks of the member states, by the EAEU trademarks, to any member state of the EAEU results in the exhaustion of exclusive rights to the trademark throughout the whole EAEU territory and the goods can freely move between the territories of the member states.

Before this provisions came into force the Kyrgyz Republic legislation stipulated the national principle of exhaustion of the exclusive right to a trademark. This meant that the importation into the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic of goods marked by protected trademarks in the Kyrgyz Republic was possible only with the permission of the rightholder of the trademark.