The work group of the State Patent Office has prepared a draft of the amendments to the Estonian Trademark Law and submitted it to the Government. Before the amendments come into force the draft shall be approved by the Government of the Republic and by the Parliament.
The Trademark Law entered into force on October 1 1992, being at that time the first law on the field of intellectual property in Estonia. In the process of the transition of Estonia from closed economy to open market economy also the development of the legislation has been extremely quick. Thus, it is quite natural that now the law which committed its task in its early days, needs to be taken into conformity with the later legal acts.
The present Estonian Trademark Law is also too brief and general. The amendments specify the wording, open the meaning of several notions and regulate more precisely the limits of responsibility of the Patent Office, applicants/attorneys and the Board of Appeals of Intellectual Property.
One of the reasons of proposed amendments is certainly the wish of Estonia to join the European Union, the World Trade Organisation and the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks.
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