“The Trademarks Act No.17, 2010 was recently amended by the Trademark (Amendment) Regulations No. 9 of 2021”.
Uganda has recently amended its Trade Mark Regulations, bringing about several changes. The most noteworthy changes relate to the following:
Trade mark agents, classification of goods and services, publication of trade marks, application for extensions, request for trade mark searches and applicant details.
In light of the above, the following important amendments should be noted:
The registration of trade mark agents are mandatory, in addition such registration must be renewed on a yearly basis. A list of all registered agents will be published by the Registrar on the official website of the Trade Mark Registry. Uganda has moved away from the 9th edition of the International Classification of Goods and Services (Nice Agreement). The classification of goods and services for all new trade mark applications will be in accordance with the 11th edition of Nice Classification of goods and services (the current edition).
The publication of trade marks for advertisement purposes is no longer limited to only the Gazette. Publication of trade marks can, at present, be in the “Gazette or any other media as the Registrar may deem fit”. The Registrar has indicated that “any other media” for publication purposes will be the Uganda Registration Service Bureau IP Journal. The amended regulations further introduced statutory forms for both the request for an extension of time (Form TM 42A) and request for trade mark searches (Form TM 27). Lastly, the applicant address must under the amended regulations include, an email address, a telephone number and a postal code number.