A little piece on Bosnia-Herzegovina

Being a football fan, I like to take inspiration from my favourite sport (e.g. here) and this week is no different. It's been World Cup 2014 qualification week and whilst I am delighted that England have qualified, I also like to see new teams qualify for the big stage too.

Brazil 2014 will see the first appearance of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

To be accurate, Bosnian players could have appeared for Yugoslavia in 1930, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1974, 1982 and 1990. There are also three other possible first-timers still in the hunt for qualification, although I feel their participation is unlikely.

Enough football and allow me to take a look at the IP landscape in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Institute of Intellectual Property manages intellectual property in the country. Delays are known to be encountered with the processing of trade mark applications filed locally although these have lessened of late.

International routes for trade mark protection and industrial design protection through the Madrid and Hague Systems are available. I was therefore quite surprised to see a large number of national design and trade mark applications from foreigners in the latest Gazette published on their website.

Bosnia-Herzegovina adopted a new trade mark law at the beginning of 2011. This introduced an opposition procedure. Previously, it relied on its relative and absolute grounds examination - this made a large contribution to the delays that were experienced. It also formalised procedures for making registration with Customs for IP rights.

EU accession would appear to be a goal for Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it is far behind other countries in the region. Croatia and Slovenia are already in the EU and Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are official candidate countries. Even Albania is ahead in the queue having submitted an application.

Croatia's recent accession to the EU means Bosnia-Herzegovina borders the European Union. To the naked eye, Bosnia-Herzegovina can appear to be landlocked on a map, but it actually has a small coastline on the Adriatic Sea around the town of Neum, which juts into Croatia. This makes the territory around the city of Dubrovnik an isolated exclave of Croatia and of the EU. Travelling to this part of the EU from another part of the EU by road therefore means traversing some territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The horrific Bosnian War of the 1990s ended with the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord which set up Bosnia-Herzegovina as a federal state. There are two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (mostly inhabited by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats) and the Republika Srpska (mostly inhabited by ethnic Serbs). It's a jigsaw of a country where the internal borders have been meticulously drawn. On the ground, political conflicts between the two entities are common though.

So much so that it would cause little surprise if Republika Srpska were to declare independence. This would fracture the region even more and, selfishly speaking, we would have another IP jurisdiction on our hands. One that might not be entirely welcome in the international arena (see also Kosovo).

Perhaps if they can have a successful 2014 World Cup, this will be a unifying experience for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Hague movements, Brunei joins

After a quiet 2013 in the international world of designs comes some news from WIPO of the accession of Brunei to the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs.

It will be possible to designate Brunei in a Hague application from 24 December 2013.

As a word of caution, Brunei is a common law jurisdiction and should therefore reflect its membership of international treaties by making reference to them in their local laws. I cannot see that this has been done, although I may not have access to the latest legislation. In the absence of legislative amendments there could be some doubt regarding the enforceability of International design registrations in Brunei.

Although a wealthy country, Brunei is not quite the major Asian economy to join the Hague System with there being talk of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea all acceding. The United States is scheduled to join up in the near future and this may prove to be the catalyst for a more rapid expansion to new jurisdictions.

For now though, welcome aboard to Brunei.

Another separate IP jurisdiction: French Polynesia

This blog likes to explore exciting and exotic places that the writer has, unfortunately, little chance of visiting in person!

This week is no difference as it heads to Tahiti, the main island of French Polynesia.

Some of us may be used to "extending" UK trade mark registrations to the likes of Jersey and other current and former overseas British Crown dependencies and territories. A similar concept is now being applied to French Polynesia and French National trade mark registrations and other National IP rights.

The situation is not straightforward and relates to French Polynesia's unique constitutional status as an "Overseas country of France", and when they attained this status.

3 March 2004 is a key date. National IP applications filed in France before this date (and still in force, naturally) apply to French Polynesia automatically and without any action required.

Those filed between 3 March 2004 and 31 August 2013 can be "extended" to French Polynesia by making an application to the authorities in French Polynesia, namely, the Direction Générale des Affaires Economiques ("DGAE").

This news item from the French INPI in Paris explains the situation - in French, of course. Note that there is a deadline, such applications must be on file by 1 September 2015.

That does seem a long time away, but don't lose sight of it if you have French national registrations from 3 March 2004 on your records.

The "extension" applications are not exactly expensive: 2680 CFP for a trade mark, 900 CFP for designs, as examples. The CFP (Change Franc Pacifique) is pegged to the Euro and these amount to €22.46 and €7.54 respectively.

The official form is in French only (not in any Polynesian language) and it does not seem necessary to appoint a local agent in French Polynesia. In practice, having someone on the ground in French Polynesia may prove helpful but I would not anticipate any problems working with the Office for agents from Europe. A Power of Attorney is required for agents.

Community Trade Marks will continue in force in French Polynesia as will, from 7 March 2013, Registered Community Designs according to INPI's news item if I've understood it correctly. I must admit this is not how I understood it as French Polynesia is not an Outermost Region of the European Union and not part of the EU so the situation could be considered ambiguous.

It also says International treaties on intellectual property continue to apply in French Polynesia so I understand that trade mark registrations and design registrations under the Madrid and Hague systems that designate France will continue in force in French Polynesia.

It's not entirely clear to me what will happen to French applications filed from 1 September 2013 to the end of the year. However, I understand that from 1 January 2014 it is possible to file applications at the INPI and ask for an extension of protection to French Polynesia to obtain parallel corresponding rights. The applicant will then receive simultaneous protection of their IP in France and in French Polynesia. I get the impression it's a box ticking exercise on the French application form. There will be additional official fees due although if they're at a similar level already mentioned they are going to be fairly incremental.

It is expected during the second half of 2014 that it will be possible to make applications directly to the DGAE in French Polynesia. This will be of assistance for Polynesian businesses that only have a need to protect their IP locally and also, for example, for some international brand owners who may market different brands in the Pacific than they do in Europe (although other French possessions in the Pacific, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna, would still need to be covered through the French national route in Paris).

What will happen with renewals is unclear. For example, you could have a French national case filed on 10 March 2004 and could therefore extend this to French Polynesia, say, by the end of this month. The French registration will fall due for renewal by the end of March 2014 so perhaps there will be a box tick option to have this renewed to cover French Polynesia too.

The world gets smaller yet here we are with another new and separate IP jurisdiction. As France may grant more autonomy to its overseas possessions, we could see this scenario repeating. Keep an eye out for New Caledonia, in particular, with an independence referendum slated in the next few years.