Category Archives: Intellectual Property

Protection of Newly Created Plant Varieties in Mongolia



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Following a process of technical consultations with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Mongolian Parliament enacted the Law on Seeds and Varieties of Plants on October 15, 2021 to regulate issues related to supporting the development of the sector of crop seeds, stimulating research and innovation in the seed sector, establishing fair trade of seeds, protection and sustainable use of plant genetic resources, creation of new plant varieties, protection of breeder’s rights and ensuring food safety.

In specifically, this law regulates the registration of a new plant varieties and the protection of the breeder’s rights. Any person who produces, sell, export and import a registered and protected plant varieties is required to obtain permission from a breeder. The protection of breeder’s right is valid for 20 years for plants and 25 years for trees and climber plants.

Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry is entitled to register a new variety plant in Mongolia and to protect breeder’s right. In determining whether or not the breeder is entitled to apply a new variety plant registration, the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry should identify that the plant is new, various, identical and stable by doing necessary field experiments and laboratory tests. These four requirements are described as below.

New – the seed and plants variety are considered new if it is not sold or distributed throughout a certain time prior to the request date:

  • 1 year ago, in the territory of Mongolia;
  • four years ago, in the territory of other countries and six years ago for trees and shrubs.

Various – if the newly created variety differs clearly from other popular varieties at the time of the request, it is considered to be different.

Identical – if the basic characteristics of the variety are sufficiently maintained during changes that may depend on the characteristics of the reproductive structure, then the seed is considered an identical variety.

Stable – After repeated reproductive cycles, if the basic characteristics of the seed do not change at the end of a specific cycle, the seed is considered a stable variety.

Therefore, it is significant to first clarify whether a plant variety can be considered as a new variety plant in Mongolia, whether breeder’s plant variety sold or distributed before in Mongolia and oversees during period mentioned above.

Invalidating a Mongolian Trademark



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In the past weeks the firm’s Mongolian lawyers have been approached with an inquiry regarding the possibilities to request trademark invalidation in Mongolia.

Registration of trademarks can be invalidated by a request filed with the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC). There are several acceptable reasons for trademark invalidation.

Any interested person may submit to the DRC a request for invalidation of a trademark registration on the ground of followings:

  • Trademark is registered in violation of registration requirements;
  • The trademark is registered in the member country of Paris Convention under name of any representative of distributor without permission of rights owner of the given trademark;
  • A trademark owner hasn’t used the trademark for 5 years without any reasonable excuses.

Such an invalidation request is acceptable in Mongolia if it was submitted within one year from the date on which the registration of the conflicting trademark was published by the Intellectual Property Office. The DRC with the authority to decide whether or not a trademark is invalid within 6 months from the date of receipt and notify it to petitioner.

Although Mongolian Trademark law provides any interested person to dispute about trademark registration validity within specific reasons, a one-year limit for a request submission is too short. After this time frame has passed, it becomes more difficult to invalidate trademark registration based on a request of likelihood of confusion.

The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris Convention) which is ratified by Mongolia, provided longer time limit for filing a trademark invalidation request. For example, article 6bis of the Paris Convention entitles the owner of a well-known mark to file an invalidation request of conflicting trademark in 5 years from the date on which the registration of the conflicting trademark was published. Therefore, a period extension for invalidation request is required for the purpose of harmonizing Mongolian law with international treaty.

Trademark Infringement Investigations and Penalties



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The Investigation procedures for handling trademark infringement in Mongolia are governed by the Law of Intellectual Property, the Infringement Procedure Law and the State Inspection Law. The penalty for trademark infringement is specified by the Infringement law or the Criminal code depending on the extent of the harm and loss actually caused, which means both civil and criminal fines may be imposed. Although, it is common practice in Mongolia to violate trademark, most violations are investigated as trademark infringement under the Law, not as criminal offenses. Therefore, with today’s blog, we will focus on trademark infringement investigation and civil penalties.

Pursuant to Article 12.3 of the Law on Trademarks and Geographical Indications of Mongolia, a trademark owner is entitled to exclusive ownership, usage rights, and legal right to demand discontinuance of unauthorized use, along with monetary damage in compensation for infringing use.

The state officer for intellectual property shall be responsible for matters related to the intellectual property, in particular trademark infringement. The authorized inspector shall carry out the inquiry into the alleged the infringement case upon the receipt of the complaint and information about the trademark infringement. Upon receiving a complaint, the inspector shall decide whether to initiate the infringement case based on the claims and evidence provided. After the investigation is complete, the authorized official shall make the decision on whether to terminate the case without penalty, or to impose penalties.

According to the Infringement law of Mongolia, authorized official shall impose following penalties for trademark infringement:

  • Seizure of property and profits related to the infringement;
  • Cessation of unauthorized use;
  • Compensation of damages to the trademark owner;
  • Individuals involved in the infringement may be fined up to 300,000 MNT while companies may be fined up to 3,000,000 MNT.

The trademark infringement decision will be enforceable in the territory of Mongolia.

Domain Name Dispute Settlement in Mongolia



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Recently, one of our clients had been seeking our advice on Mongolian communications law, particularly on the domain name registration and dispute settlement issue. Meanwhile providing legal analysis to our client’s inquiry, we have decided to provide the post in concern with background of the domain name monitor in Mongolia.

Communications Regulatory Commission of Mongolia (CRC) is the government authority that is responsible to monitor the implementation for registration and usage of domain name. Only one company, a Datacom LLC, has the authority from the CRC to register domain name in Mongolia. Datacom LLC’s website has a WHOIS owner database.

One of the powers of the CRC is resolving disputes between a domain name registrant (domain name holder) and a third party. In 2020 CRC adopted a “Regulation on registration and use of domain names”. This Regulation specifically provides for that “CRC will follow laws and regulations of Mongolia when processing requests and complaints. When dealing with issues not specified in laws of Mongolia and this Regulation, CRC may follow relevant parts of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (UDRP)”.

Pursuant to Regulation on registration and use of domain names, after the third party (other than domain name registrar and domain name registrant) submits a request or complaint, provided that all required documents are submitted along with request or complaint, CRC shall notify domain name registrar, domain name registrant and other relevant parties and obtain relevant response from them within 14 days from the date of submission of request or complaint. CRC will resolve the request or complaint within 21 days from the date of receipt of relevant responses. Depending on the content of request or complaint CRC may appoint a panel consisting of 3 experts with the purpose of carrying out an expert opinion on the matter. In such case the time to process a request or complaint against domain name will be longer. Pursuant to this Regulation, if CRC deems necessary, complaining party and domain name registrant may participate in the dispute resolution hearing.

Intellectual Property Law Reform in Mongolia



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Over the past decade or so due to rapid development of technologies more new types of works and creations are starting to be protected by intellectual property rights. Hence the relations and transactions related to intellectual property rights are becoming more complex and multifaceted. Naturally, reform of intellectual property legislation becomes necessary. So, new Law on Intellectual property was adopted on January 23, 2020 and came into force on December 1, 2020. Law on Intellectual property establishes general regulations related to intellectual property rights, legal status of intellectual property authorities and institutions. In one of our previous blogs, we have covered highlights of this law. And matters related to specific types of intellectual property are regulated by separate relevant laws.

As part of said reform several key laws were renewed and amended on May 6, 2021, particularly, Law on Patents, Law on Copyrights, and Law on Trademarks and Geographical indications.

Revised version of Law on Patents was adopted and it implements several new significant regulations. Here are highlights of these new regulations:

  • new law provides to grant patents for utility models, whereas previously certificates were granted for utility models;
  • patentability criteria of inventions, utility models and industrial designs are redefined, in the sense that they are more clarified;
  • patent application filing procedures have become more detailed, particularly, formal examination of application is split into two stages: composition check of application documents and examination of application documents;
  • due to the fact that terms in the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), to which Mongolia is a party, are long and the need to bring the law into line with PCT, patent application filing terms and prior art search and substantive examination terms have been extended. Also, other relevant regulations have been brought into line with international treaties, to which Mongolia is a party;
  • regulation of electronic filing of patent applications have been updated, while previous regulations were very vague;
  • more clarified regulation is added concerning third-party observations (third-party objections);
  • regulation on international patent application filing procedures, and licensing agreement regulations have become more detailed.

Overall, the new law has implemented more detailed regulations and precise terms of patent application filing, application examination and patent granting procedures, and has eliminated any previously existing inconsistencies and overlaps of regulations.

In our following blogs we shall discuss about new regulations established in Law on Trademarks and Geographical indications and Law on Copyrights.

Registering Your IP with Mongolia Customs



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Holders of Intellectual Property rights (IP) registered in Mongolia have the option to register these rights with Customs. This registration allows an IP holder an important tool to prevent import or export of counterfeit products into or out of Mongolia.

In order to be included in the customs database, an IP rights holder must submit a request to the General Customs Administration to include the holder’s IP rights in the Customs database. Such request shall contain the details of the goods related to the intellectual property rights, information of the holder, documents confirming the intellectual property rights, along with a list of goods to be registered and protected. There is no official fee for this registration.

The decision to register goods related to intellectual property rights in the Customs database is finalized by the head of the department in charge of control and risk of the Central Customs Administration. Information registered with the central database is shared with regional Customs offices around the country.

IP holders should take care to report to Customs and request updated registration with Customs when any important information regarding the IP rights is changed, including duration of protection, name of the rights holder, or others.

The Central Customs Administration may publish the list of goods registered in the Customs database and changes thereto in the official customs edition and some other information on the customs website with the permission of the rights holder.

Patent Maintenance Fees



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A patent owner shall pay the following fees to Intellectual property office of Mongolia (IPOM) in order to maintain the validity of their patents:

  • 10000 MNT /~ 3.77 USD/ for the 1st three years;
  • 20000 MNT /~ 7.54 USD/ for the 4th-6th years;
  • 30000 MNT /~ 11.31 USD/ for the 7-10th years;
  • 40000 MNT /~ 15.09 USD/ for the 11th-15th years;
  • 50000 MNT /~ 18.86 USD/ for the 16th-20th years.

The payment for the patent validity of 1st three years shall be paid within 6 months after the decision on the issuance of patent, and the payment of further fees are to be paid 6 months prior to the commencement of the preceding fee payment. In case the patent owner failed to make the payment on time, the IPOM may grant an additional 6 months and in such case the patent owner shall pay additional fees equivalent to the non-paid duration fee.

The IPOM is entitled to invalidate the patent in case of non-payment of fees within the additional 6 months. However, if the patent was invalidated on the grounds of failed payment, the patent may be renewed upon the request of patent owner within the general valid term of the patent (20-50 years).

Well-Known Trademarks in Mongolia



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The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, to which Mongolia joined in 1985, provides that the countries of the Union undertake, ex officio if their legislation so permits, or at the request of an interested party, to refuse or to cancel the registration, and to prohibit the use, of a trademark which constitutes a reproduction, an imitation, or a translation, liable to create confusion, of a mark considered by the competent authority of the country of registration or use to be well known in that country as being already the mark of a person entitled to the benefits of this Convention and used for identical or similar goods.

These provisions shall also apply when the essential part of the mark constitutes a reproduction of any such well–known mark or an imitation liable to create confusion therewith. Accordingly, Article 3.1.3 of the Law on Trademark and geographical indication defines the well-known mark as “the well-known trademark in the respective sector of Mongolia and the one, which does not require any IP registration. Within its duty for drafting and adoption of the Regulation concerning the IP-related matters, the Intellectual property office of Mongolia adopted a “Regulation concerning the IP-related matters, on the determination of the trademark as being well-known” on 08th April 2014.

It is important to note that the Regulation applies only within the territory of Mongolia and covers the trademarks /it may be both national and international ones/ that are well-known to the general public of Mongolia. Those companies interested in settling the question whether their trademark may be considered to belong to this category, they shall file a request to the Dispute settlement committee of the Intellectual property office of Mongolia.

Mongolia is Introducing E-Filing System for Intellectual Property



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The Mongolian Government’s Action Plan for 2016-2020 aims that the state functions have been introduced the online system for establishing reliable, accessible and express public services based on paperless services. The most ultimate source is that the article 8 of Patent law sets forth the filing an electronic application for invention, industrial design or innovation.

 

In April 26, 2018 as the World Intellectual Property Day, IPOM publish (Online Data system) and E-Filing (Online Filing System) were introduced for developing the use of the intellectual property database and facilitating the filing process for IP rights.

 

Above-mentioned systems allow to register the invention electronically and obtain electronic information on patents and trademarks.

 

In today’s highly developed IT platform, the filing electronic application for IP rights and the obtaining of patent information for the research work are an important part of saving time and paper. Furthermore, the researchers, inventors and producers are able to find the similar researches with their research work in online Intellectual Property database. It will definitely helpful to develop more competitive way of creating the inventions as well as avoiding any risks in the future.

Issues with Effective IP Enforcement Actions in Mongolia



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Several clients in recent months have contacted the firm requesting assistance in tracking down and stopping intellectual property infringers in Mongolia. After working closely on many of these cases, our Mongolian Attorneys and licensed Intellectual Property specialists are among the forefront of the Mongolian IP enforcement practice in Mongolia. Our team has a few key insights that those doing business in Mongolia should be aware of.

In Mongolia, the systems for investigation and resolution of IP infringement issues is relatively unsophisticated. IP infringement cases often are not able to be resolved or punished effectively due to a lack in the number of state inspectors and the resulting workload for those inspectors who are on the job. Only a few State Inspectors handle IP issues, and such inspectors are obliged to inspect shops or markets selling infringing goods throughout Ulaanbaatar in accordance with the specific demands of each case. It is often very difficult for the state inspectors to identify possible infringers. State inspectors will normally punish known infringers identified during an IP enforcement action by warnings, confiscation of infringing goods, and fines for repeat offenses. General lack of education in Mongolia account IP and the limited effectiveness of such examinations result in infringing products for which sales have been shut down at a particular market showing up again for sale elsewhere at a different shop or different market.

Another problem is that the estimation of intangible asset related damages caused by IP infringement is not clear and is not well defined or regulated under law. Though the law says such damages will be settled under applicable regulations and administrative acts, regulation applicable to estimation of intangible asset related damages caused by IP infringement is unclear in Mongolia. The complaint regarding intangible asset associated damages cannot be resolved properly under such procedure. In fact, it is very few cases which filed complaint concerning the said infringement with IP office and there is no good practice on this issue.

The Mongolian government needs to pay attention on eliminating violations of intellectual property rights and properly compensating damages caused by IP infringement.  Those seeking effective IP enforcement in Mongolia need to come prepared with a large amount of investigation preformed and research compiled ready to be presented in a complaint to the IP Office, and should have a clearly documented and easily calculatable claim for damages caused due to the alleged infringement.