Category Archives: Uncategorized

Contracts and the Role of Notaries



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In contract law relations, notaries have a main function to provide legal counseling and assistance to the contract parties before and upon the conclusion of the contract.

Upon the certification and authentication of the contract, notaries are obliged to explain to the parties the contract’s content, legal consequences and liabilities in case of its breach. Furthermore, notaries shall clarify if the parties are concluding or have concluded the contract on the basis of equal rights without any pressure or any other manipulative factors, and whether the contract fully expresses the clients’ will, purpose and interests, if all contract parties are completely aware of the potential and factual consequences. In case there is no violation of such circumstances, the notaries shall finally make a certification of the contracts.

The Civil code of Mongolia and other related legislation provide following contracts to be necessarily certified and authenticated by notaries:

  • Contract on the transaction of immovable properties
  • Contract in relation to the marital property
  • The settlement on the sole ownership of apartments
  • Contract on the transfer, limited property and usage of the present properties
  • Gift promises of certain properties
  • Contracts on support and care
  • Contracts and settlements on the duty performance
  • Contracts on the bank deposit of money and securities

Finally upon the request of the parties, notaries may also certify any contracts, which do not require any notarization, unless such contracts comply with legislation.

Registration of Trademark Abroad



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The product and services of a company is considered to be its image and furthermore can become the main capital source of it. Any business enterprises with a well-known trademark has an advantage of maintaining and enhancing its competitive position in the market.

The legally registered trademark is a source for the prevention of the usage of the same trademark by other parties and the protection of your legal rights and interests as a trademark owner. Although there is no legal requirement for the registration of company’s trademark, it constitutes an exclusive right that aimed at protecting the rights of the eligible trademark owner from any usage of similar or consumer-confusing trademarks by others.

In case you are interested in protecting your rights in relation to the trademark, that is the result of your precious time and effort, from any violations both in Mongolia and abroad, the registration of it will be of a crucial importance.  Particularly for those who wish to export or grant their trademark license of products in another country, the international registration is a must.

For that purpose, you may to submit the national application in that foreign country of your wish or file an international application.

The first option requires you to submit the request for trademark registration at the trademark office in accordance with the related procedures of that country and you will probably need services of the authorized agent for trademark of that country as well. The fees regarding the trademark registration overseas differs depending on the operation to be carried out in respective countries.

As for the second one, the international trademark registration application, you may to file the registration request for the trademark, that has already been registered or undergoing the registration process in Mongolia by means of the so-called Madrid the international trademark system. This Madrid system, in which Mongolia joined as a member, offers an opportunity for trademark owners to register their trademark on international level in up to 120 member countries by filing a single application at fixed rate and time in one language.

Should you require a detailed information about the Madrid international trademark system, visit this link https://www.wipo.int/madrid/en/ or contact us.

Intro to Food Packaging Labels



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Aimed at decreasing the risks associated with food products, the Mongolian legislation sets the rules and requirements related to the packaging of some food products. The Law on Food safety of Mongolia as being the major legal source for the food sanitation relations, the “Procedure on determining and labeling of food raw materials and food products requiring the package and labeling” dated 2013 and the recently adopted “Standard for labeling of pre-packaged foods” with a code MNS 6648:2016 adopted by the Decree No. 64 of the National Standard Committee /the Mongolian Agency for Standard and Metrology/ provide required information to be included on the package.

According to these legal acts, food businesses shall necessarily state following information, including but not limited to the name of the food product, the name and address of the manufacturer, size, serial number of the product and the manufacturing date. The “Standard for labeling of pre-packaged foods” with a code MNS 6648:2016 sets out a more detailed standard to the information requirement. For instance, pursuant to Article 5.7.1/a/ of the Standard, the manufacturing date and the best before date shall be labelled. In case, the product’s best before date is not more than 3 months, the “month and day” shall be shown, while for the products with more than 3 months best before date – “year and month” shall be shown.

These standards are not mere ‘information instructions’ where the food companies may choose whether to follow them or not. Since, this legislation and standard are subject to comply with, there are several ways to impose penalties depending on the nature of the violation.

According to the Article 27.2 of the Law on Standard, technical regulation and accreditation conformity assessment, a citizen, company and the organization shall comply with the standards and technical regulation. Therefore, any violation of food standard and the Law on Food safety of Mongolia shall be a subject of penalty stated in the Law of Infringement and the Criminal Code. Pursuant to the infringement law /Sub-clause 4 of article 6.15/, that this infringement shall result into the seizure of properties and profits related to the infringement, compensation of damages, the person shall pay a fine of 1,000,000 MNT and the legal entity – 10,000,000 MNT.

The Criminal Code, however, does not explicitly state this type of Crime and provides only the crime “Sales and distribution of foods not meeting the health standards”, which requires that this violation should have caused a severe bodily harm or death. The person committing this crime shall be fined up to 27,000,000MNT or imprisoned up to 5 years.

Issuing Court Decisions



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Rendering the decision

The judge will announce a recess of the court session and to issue its decision. During the recess session parties will leave the court room.

 Decision

The first instance court will issue one of the following decisions.  

  • satisfy the claim’s demand;
  • satisfy part of the claim’s demand and dismiss the rest of it; or
  • dismiss the whole claim.

Announcing the decision and closing the court session

The judge will announce the decision, explain the other essential matters if necessary, and close the court session. The decision shall come into force immediately upon presentation.

The decision will be written within 7 days after its issuance and the judge will sign it. After the issuance of written decision and parties will come to court and get the decision within 14 days.  

Litigants, third parties, their representatives or defense lawyers may file a complaint of appeal to the courts within 14 days after receiving the decision of the court of first instance. 

Getting Mongolian Visa Online



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From the 1st of May this year, the Mongolian Immigration agency started issuing some types of visa permits in electronic way.

With the current modification, citizens and legal entities are not required to go to the Immigration agency in person in order to submit the visa permit requests in paper form or to obtain the related decisions and approvals in paper form.

Within the National program “E-Government” aimed at providing fast and citizen-oriented public services, the Mongolian immigration agency has introduced, as the initial step, the online services for granting the visa permits of tourist “J” and business “B” types for single entry and business “B” type for multiple entry visas.

As such, the applications for visa permits of temporary visitors for stay of 31-90 days and multiple entry visas for 30 days, which are issued at the Mongolian diplomatic and consular missions, as well as visa permits to be issued at the international border checkpoints of Mongolia may be filed electronically.

You may find the link of the e-visa section at the upper side of the main page of http://www.immigration.gov.mn or by directly visiting its official page  http://www.evisa.mn .

When registering and applying online, citizens and legal entities shall carefully read the required steps for inviting foreign guests and visa permit application. Upon the successful submission of all documents, the decision on the issuance of the visa permit shall be delivered within 3 business days to the registered email address and the phone number.

The visa permit shall mean the document permitting the issuance of visas granted by the Ministry of foreign affairs or the Mongolian immigration agency to the diplomatic mission offices of Mongolia abroad and the border checkpoints.

Presenting Evidence and Witness Testimony at Mongolia Court



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Continuing our look at general procedures for trying a case before court in Mongolia.

2.2 Examination of documentary and real evidence

A Court shall examine evidence and documents collected in the case. The written evidence which it considers necessary and requested by participants and judge will be read out at the requested page or section to the court. 

2.3 Asking questions

The judge will ask questions from both parties and the claimant and respondent will ask questions to each other and answer each other’s questions.

2.4 Examination of a witness

The judge shall bring witnesses into the courtroom and warn him/her of his duties and liabilities to be imposed on him/her and to sign the minutes of court session on this. Each witness is questioned separately. The judge, claimant and respondent will each ask questions from the witness.  

A witness who has not yet testified may not be in the Court room during the process of the court session. A witness who has been questioned remains in the Court room unless the judge permits him/her to leave.

A Court may conduct preliminary testimony of a witness or may reexamine the witness.

2.5 Reading out conclusions of an expert

The conclusions of an expert are read out at the court session. An expert will explain his/her conclusions at the court session. Questions may then be put to the expert. In the event of the expert’s conclusions being doubtful or unclear or contradictory, the court will order another expert to provide conclusions.

2.6 Additional clarifications from persons taking part in the case

After examining the evidence, the judge asks the litigants whether they have issues that need additional clarification. In this event, parties may ask questions and answer and explain more about their arguments which have not been presented.

 Also, both parties will present final conclusions of their sides.

Trying a Case in Mongolia Court



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The case proceeding begins with a report from the judge on a case. The judge then asks whether the plaintiff persists in his/her demands/claim, whether the defendant admits the plaintiff’s demands/claim, and whether the parties wish to conclude a settlement. The plaintiff may withdraw his/her claim without obtaining permission from defendant. A defendant may admit the plaintiff’s claim in whole or in part or litigants may agree to settlement before the Court issues its decision.

If both parties settled before the hearing and if settlement does not violate rights, freedom and interests of other persons protected by law and/or obstruct the law, the Court may issue a decision confirming settlement between litigants and dismissing the case.

The Court decision shall state that the Court costs and the state stamp duty are to be paid by a plaintiff if he/she withdraws his/her claim or by a defendant if he/she admits and accepts the claim’s demand or is to be divided between litigants if they have concluded settlement.

If both parties would not be settled before the hearing parties will proceed to the main litigation.

2.1 Oral arguments between litigants

Before the oral arguments of the litigants, the judge will remind them of their rights and duties and advise them to give truthful explanations.

First, the plaintiff will explain the facts and introduce the claim and legal grounds of claim. After that, the defendant will present their refusal to accept the claim’s demand and explain the legal grounds of refusal.

Again, the claimant must prove the demand of the claim, disputed events and evidence, guilt of the defendant and grounds for the denial of the defendant’s refusal to accept/acknowledge the claim. Afterwards, defendant side will present the grounds and evidence for refusal to admit the claim’s demand. Debate between claimant and defendant will continue 3-4 times depending on the case.

Summary Of Civil Procedure Of The First Instance Court: Preliminary Stage



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A practical review of how court proceedings are conducted.

Firstly, the judge opens the court session, announces the case which is to be heard and gives permission to participants in the Court hall to sit down.

Then the secretary of the court will check attendance of the court session, those who are participating in the trial and will report to the judge which of the persons summoned for the case have appeared. If the claimant or respondent have not appeared in the court hearing, the secretary will check whether writs were served on the person who have not appeared, and reason to causes of their non-appearance.

After that, the court will check the identity of the participants appearing and the authorizations of officials and representatives.

Then, the judge announces the composition/components of the Court and introduces such as secretary of the court session, the interpreter, any experts and explains to all the parties, third parties and their attorneys and representatives who are taking part in the case and their right to withdraw any components of the Court. The judge also explains to the parties taking part in the case their rights and duties specified in law.

Afterwards, the judge asks if there are any requests from the parties. If any of parties has a request (such as to postpone the hearing etc), they will introduce it to the court and the judge will decide on it immediately. With respect to compiling new evidence and on all other questions connected with the case, everything will be decided by a judge immediately after hearing the opinions/requests of the parties taking part in the case.

The parties may present additional explanations and new evidence significant to the case resolution during the court session; if the court considers them to be important to the case and accepts them for further investigation, the judge may adjourn the court session.

Pursuing Criminal Charges for Trademark Infringement



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In our previous blogs (here and here), we stated that the question whether the infringement of the trademark owner’s rights constitutes an infringement or criminal case will be determined by virtue of the damage amount arisen out of such action, and also that there are different sanctions to each scenario.

In order to determine whether this action is the crime of ‘Violation of the rights of trademark owner and geographical indication” stated in Article 18.16, the damage incurred out of the action of confusing consumers through production, storing, transportation, sales and crossing of the state frontier by using trademark or geographical indication shall be more than 300,000 MNT (115 USD)and above.

If it is proven that the damage amount equals or exceeds the amount stated in the Criminal procedure law of Mongolia, the following measures with regard to criminal case filing may be taken.

  • The owner of trademark or geographical indication shall file a complaint and information about the crime to the police inspector. For such purpose, there should be a sufficient proof that the activities of the infringers are indeed a crime with loss/damage with more than 300 000MNT (115USD). The police inspector may take the following inspection measures to determine if the case stated in the compliant and information contains the elements of a crime within  5 days upon the receipt of the complaint and information:
  • Examination
  • Lab inspection of  samples and finger prints
  • Take testimony from witness
  • Seizure of the crime-related transportation, money and products
  • Confiscation of properties and belongings
    • After the receipt of the complaint immediately or after the conduct of the inspection operations stated above the inspector shall make one of the decisions:
  • To initiate a criminal case
  • To submit a proposal to the prosecutor on the refusal to initiate a criminal case
  • To submit a proposal to the prosecutor to the transfer the case according to the jurisdiction of the case and the law does not provide the duration
  • In case the inspector decided to initiate the case, he/she shall immediately inform the prosecutor about the decision and register the case at the central registry of the prosecutor and introduce the resolution to the prosecutor within 72 hours after the registry of the case at the central registry of the prosecutor. This shall be deemed as justification for the conduct of the criminal procedure. The general time for the criminal case filing, i.e. operations starting from initiating the case until the prosecution of the accused shall be one month and may be extended for up to three months by the prosecutor. 

Also, we have to take into account that in case the prosecutor decides that the initiation of the criminal case by the inspector is not justified, he/she shall invalidate the case filing.

Procedures for Investigating Trademark Infringement



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The procedures for addressing trademark infringement in Mongolia are regulated by the Law on Infringement Procedure and by the Criminal Code of Mongolia. Detailed information on the legal measures to be taken in cases of infringement, their related dates and the practical challenges will be further addressed in the next article.

As mentioned in our previous blog, the penalty for infringement of a trademark is set out in the Law of Infringement or Criminal Code of Mongolia depending on the amount of the damage and loss actually caused. It is critical in any trademark infringement action to take steps to prove that the damage caused by the trademark violation exceeds 300,000 MNT (~$115), in order to initiate a criminal investigation by the police.

With today’s article, we will briefly introduce the Law on Infringement Procedure of Mongolia (the Law). The Law sets out rules and procedures for potential infringement investigation and penalty, starting from the initial inquiry of a potential infringement case. The Law also sets rules for the prosecutor’s supervision of the investigation process and results and procedures for dispute settlement at the court.

Pursuant to the Article 6.14 of the Law, 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

Prosecutor has an oversight role and may invalidate the decision to terminate the infringement case in instances where it is determined that the infringement case has an element of a crime or it is obvious that infringement has occurred. If the prosecutor decides that the matter has an element of crime, he/she shall prosecute the infringer as defendant.

Where infringement of a trademark is found, the infringer shall execute the imposed penalties within 15 days after the receipt of the decision. Should the infringer disagree with the decision and imposed penalties, there is an opportunity for appeal. 

Even though the violation of the intellectual property in Mongolia is a common practice, most violations are investigated as trademark “infringement” under the Law, and not as a crime. As the penalties for such infringement violations are relatively low and the investigation procedure is not reliable, the occurrence of such violations is not effectively deterred. Such persistent infringement causes challenge and burden both to the intellectual property owners and the respective authorities.

We will take a look at criminal investigation procedure next week.