Other grounds for refusal of registration

Designations shall not be subject to registration as trademarks, if they are identical or confusingly similar to:

1. Trademarks registered or applied for registration in the Republic of Belarus in the name of any other person and possessing earlier priority in relation to homogeneous goods;

2. With the trademarks of other persons protected in the Republic of Belarus on the basis of international treaties of the Republic of Belarus in respect of homogeneous goods;

3. Trademarks of other persons recognized as well-known in the Republic of Belarus, in relation to any goods;

4. With the name of the place of origin of goods protected in the Republic of Belarus, as well as with the designation applied for registration as such and having an earlier priority, except for the case where such designation or a similar designation is included as an unprotected element in a trademark registered in the name of a person having an exclusive right to such a name, if registration of a trademark is carried out with respect to those goods for which individualization the name of the place of origin of the goods is registered.

Designations will not be subject to protection as trademarks either, if they are identical to or similar to the degree of confusion with: :

5.   an industrial model, the right for which in the Republic of Belarus is held by any other person, if the industrial model possesses earlier priority as compared to the trademark applied for registration;

6. the name of the selection achievement protected in the Republic of Belarus, the right to which in the Republic of Belarus arose from another person earlier than the priority date of the registered trademark;

7.   protected in the Republic of Belarusa the brand name (separate elements of such name), the right to which in the Republic of Belarus has arisen with the other person earlier than the priority date of the trademark to be registered.

The following designations can not be registered as a trademark:

8.   a name of a work of science, literature or art, personage or citation of such work, work of art or its fragment, well-known in the Republic of Belarus, without consent of the right holder, if the right to the respective work has arisen earlier than the priority date of the trademark to be registered;

9.   a name of a mass media registered in the Republic of Belarus, without consent of its incorporator (incorporators), in relation to homogeneous goods;

10.   surname, name, pseudonym or designation, being derivative thereof, portrait or facsimile of the person well-known in the Republic of Belarus, without consent of such person or his/her heirs.

It should be taken into account that on the grounds specified in clauses 1-3, examination shall be held for the designation applied for registration.

On the grounds specified in clauses 4-10, examination will not be held. But such grounds may be the motive for contest and recognition as invalid of lawfulness of granting legal protection to the trademark already after its registration.