Dominican
Fees for registering Dominican trademarks
First class：
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Additional class：
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Renewal:
Service Process
Trademark registration time
The current trademark regulations in the Dominican Republic are mainly based on the Industrial Property Law promulgated on April 4, 2000. The Dominican Trademark Office is responsible for managing trademark affairs and the official language is English. Trademark exclusive rights need to be obtained through registration. Trademark registration is not mandatory, but in order to protect the trademark or renew it, it must be registered in accordance with the law. The Dominican trademark registration follows the principle of "application first".
The Dominican Republic is a signatory to international intellectual property treaties such as the Paris Convention, the WIPO Convention, the TRIPS Agreement, and the Geneva Convention, and has not yet joined the Madrid System. Therefore, trademark registration can only be processed through "single country registration".
Trademark Registration Process
At present, the Dominican Trademark Office adopts the Nice Classification 11th edition for the description of goods and services, accepts applications for multiple categories, and charges fees according to categories. The elements that make up a registered trademark in the Dominican Republic include: text, name, graphics, three-dimensional logo, color, slogan, sound, smell (olfactory trademark), commercial appearance/decoration, hologram, etc.
If the applicant does not reside in the Dominican Republic, they must entrust a specialized agent in their home country to handle the matter. The basic materials required for trademark application are:
1. Trademark design;
2. Specific categories and product/service items;
3. Name and address of the applicant;
4. Power of attorney;
5.If priority is declared, proof of priority must be provided.
The main process for applying for registration of a Dominican trademark is: application acceptance examination announcement approval issuance. The decision on whether to accept the application will be made approximately 1-2 weeks after submission. The examiner will conduct formal and substantive examinations on the application. Formal review mainly examines whether the application requirements and classification information comply with regulations; The substantive examination includes the examination of the distinctiveness of the trademark, whether it violates the prohibition and prohibition clauses, and whether it conflicts with the prior trademark. After the review is approved, an announcement will be arranged, and a 45 day objection period will be set from the announcement date. Any interested party or prior rights holder may raise objections, and the main reasons for raising objections are:
1. Conflict with prior trademarks, such as owning a prior registered trademark;
2. The trademark lacks distinctiveness;
3. The trademark has adverse effects;
4. Malicious registration;
5. Conflict with other prior rights, such as trade name rights, design rights, copyrights, personal names, etc;
6. The slogan trademark lacks originality.
If there are no objections or objections are not valid during the announcement period, the registration can be approved and a registration certificate can be issued; If the review fails, a rejection notice will be issued and the applicant will be required to respond within the time limit specified in the rejection notice. If everything goes smoothly, trademark registration in the Dominican Republic takes about 6 months; If there are any objections or rejections during the process, the time will be extended to about 2 years.
Trademark registration materials
The Dominican trademark is valid for 10 years after registration, starting from the date of registration; Renewal can be processed within 6 months before the expiration date, with a grace period of 6 months; The renewal is valid for 10 years.
The revocation application after trademark registration can generally be filed in accordance with the following two provisions of the Dominican Industrial Property Law:
Article 92: (1) Violation of the provisions of this law; (2) If it is known or should have been known that someone else has prior rights when applying for a trademark, the relevant rights holder may apply for invalidation.
Article 93: If a trademark is not actually used in that country for three consecutive years after registration, anyone may apply for revocation; Except for force majeure.
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