Trademark dilution: A fairly new concept

01-02-2012

The rights of an owner of a well-known trademark under the Paris Convention involve the prevention of an unauthorised third party from registering or using that mark in relation to identical or similar goods.

Article 16.3 of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement extends this protection to wellknown marks when they are used for goods or services that their trademark registrations do not cover, if the use indicates a connection to the owner and the well-known trademark owner would be damaged.

Pakistan implements these standards by protecting registered as well as unregistered well-known marks, of both domestic and foreign origin, from use and/or registration by unauthorised parties.

They are protected by the Trademarks Ordinance 2001 (TMO), which came into effect on April 12, 2004, and aligned Pakistan’s intellectual property (IP) regime with its TRIPS obligations as a World Trade Organization member.


Pakistan, Paris Convention, Third-party, trademarks

WIPR