One more day since I can remember, Iraq (officially Republic of Iraq) once again becomes international news. The United States, for the first time since the war against the Islamic State was waged, has begun the withdrawal of troops from the country.
I have stopped for a moment on the news - which goes almost unnoticed between the political density, the snow storm in Spain, and other various storms and showers - to reflect on the scope and unimaginable nuances of a context of crisis that, for different reasons, reasons, it has lasted for decades.
I still feel the impact that the news that the United States would bomb Iraq had on me at the end of the 90s, when I was practically a child. At that moment I was not able to understand what would happen or what significance it would have. I don't think I would be able to do it 20 years later either. I can't even understand with all the nuances the conditions under which our profession must be practiced in such an environment. Conflicts affect all areas of life, and therefore, although it may be insignificant, they also affect Industrial Property, brands, the institutions and government agencies that administer them, local officials and professionals, owners and interested third parties, including communications, postal services and technology and physical records that disappear or are destroyed.
It is not difficult for me to imagine a context in which other priorities govern. For this reason, I am personally beginning to find a justification for the fact that the Iraqi Trademark Office has decided to carry out a sort of clean slate with some trademark files, as we have learned these days.
I interpret that in an attempt at rebirth after the disaster, among the measures and amendments that the Iraqi Trademark Office, has been implemented new registration procedure in which the order of some of the main procedural milestones has been reversed. Now, trademark applications are subject to the positive result of a prior examination after which they will be considered officially filed, to then be published and registered.
This measure would not have great relevance in our profession, if it were not for the fact that it has been accompanied by the decision to suspend those trademark applications that had been filed under the protection of the old law and old practice. To the holders interested parties are given, as only option, re-application for your trademarks with the preference of being able to preserve the priority date of the oldest application during the registration procedure of the new application.
The reactivation of the suspended procedures seems truly unlikely. And this improbability seems to make sense after having learned these days that, on January 29, 2018, the Iraqi Trademark Office has begun to officially require the owners of suspended trademarks to re-request their rights at the risk of resolving their cancellation. .
Although this news must be taken with all the caution of the context expressed, as there are also discordant opinions and information, which It seems advisable to specify the real interests in Iraq and, out of prudence, to re-request those records that are considered fundamental.
Author: Cristina Arroyo
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