Moldova: New Trademarks Act in force as of 2027

The New Trademarks Act introduces a series of significant novelties. These may be concomitantly seen as making the trademarks protection system more accessible and as placing additional responsibilities on trademark holders:

• Under the new law, the submission of an application to register a trademark in bad faith is regarded both as an absolute ground for refusal and as an absolute ground for invalidity (annulment). Under the existing legislation (the "Current Trademarks Act"), the submission of an application in bad faith is an absolute ground for invalidity only and cannot be invoked during the examination of the application to register the trademark.
• The New Trademarks Act provides a different procedure for examining the grounds for refusal. In particular, the application to register a trademark is published in the Official Bulletin of Intellectual Property only if or after the Trademarks Office has detected the absence of absolute grounds for refusal. Under the Current Trademarks Act, the Trademarks Office examines the grounds for refusal (both absolute and relative) ex officio after the publication of the application to register the trademark.
• Such an ex officio examination regime would be applicable only for absolute grounds for refusal, since pursuant to the New Trademarks Act, relative grounds for refusal can be applied by the Moldovan Trademarks Office only if invoked in an opposition filed by the holder of a previous trademark or previous right. However, this new rule is not an impediment for the holder of a previous trademark or previous right to invoke relative grounds for refusal during the trademark invalidation procedure.
• When describing the invalidation procedure, the Current Trademarks Act indicates the court that is competent to examine the request for cancellation or invalidation of a trademark. In contrast, the New Trademarks Act allows the interested person to choose between the Chisinau (Centru) Court and the Moldovan Trademarks Office as the authority to examine a request for cancellation ( cerere de decadere din drepturi) and the request for invalidation (Ro. cerere de declarare a nulitatii) of a trademark. We expect that the specialised commission of the Moldovan Trademarks Office (Ro. Comisia de decadere din drepturi si de declarare a nulitatii marcii) will examine a request for cancellation or invalidation of a trademark more quickly than the current court procedure.
• Additionally, under the New Trademarks Act, the non-use of an earlier trademark within the five-year period within which the earlier trademark must have been put to genuine use can be used as a defence in both opposition proceedings and in proceedings seeking to declare a later trademark invalid. In this respect, the Current Trademarks Act allows non-use as a defence only in opposition proceedings.

Given the number and significance of the amendments operated through the New Trademarks Act, we can reasonably expect the operation of major amendments with the secondary legislation or even the adoption of new pieces of such secondary legislation. Luckily, the Moldovan authorities will have plenty of time before 2027 to carefully prepare and properly implement such amendments.

author: Andrian Guzun