The government has issued a 30-day ultimatum for businesses to renew their trademark applications in line with new rules.
In a special edition of the Industrial Property Journal, the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) - the parastatal charged with administering industrial property rights - stated that trademark owners that would not have filed a renewal application for their marks will be removed.
The period was open from February 15, 2021, and will lapse on April 2021.The agency had earlier published information on a number of updated trademark rules.
The provisions state that trademark owners will receive notice if no application for the renewal of a registered trademark has been received after the 10-year validity period.
"If the owner of a registered trademark makes an application to renew its listed mark and pays the renewal fee (and the additional late renewal fee) within 30 days from the date of publication, the trademark will be renewed and will not be removed from the trademark register," the rules state in part.
If the mark has been removed from the register, the owner can file an application to renew it upon payment of the renewal fee plus additional fees for restoration. Should the register show that is fair to do so, the trademark will then be restored.
A Trade Mark is a sign which serves to distinguish the goods of an industrial or a commercial enterprise or a group of such enterprises.
The sign may consist of one or more distinctive works, letters, numbers, drawings or pictures, monograms, signatures, colours or combinations of colours.
In a notice, KIPI listed the publication fees for first-class Ksh 3,000/ and US$ 60 for foreigners and locals respectively and for each subsequent class $50 for foreigners and Ksh 2,500 for locals.
The government body has listed more than 2,400 expired marks, which it intends to remove from the trademark register.
The Industrial Property Act protects four elements of intellectual property rights, patents, utility models, industrial designs and technovations.
The Act also provides for the registration of technology transfer agreements and licenses. The Institute is also mandated to implement the Trademarks Act Cap 506 that deals with the registration of Trade and service marks.
In enacting the Act the Government recognized that inventors in the country were disadvantaged in getting patent protection because of the long and costly procedures that required an inventor to get protection in the United Kingdom (UK) Patent Office before the same could be registered in the Registrar Generals Office in Kenya.
Such a procedure rendered patenting a hopeless pursuit for an inventor mainly because the invention was likely to be copied and later patented by persons with easier access to the necessary patenting structures
It was therefore imperative that the government should develop a means to protect invention which is easily accessible to inventors.
Kenya is also a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which administers the Patent cooperation treaty (PCT).
