Newsletter
TRADEMARK OPPOSITION DEADLINES DURING TRANSI-TION TO NEW TRADEMARK ACT
When the most recent amendments to the Trademark Act took effect on 28 November 2003, trademark registration applications filed before that date, in respect of which a decision to grant registration had been published less than three months previously, became subject to the new Act, and were directly registered under the new Act on 1 December 2003. However, the Trademark Act contains no express provision as to how the three-month trademark opposition period should be calculated in such cases.
In a recent judgment, the Taipei High Adminis-trative Court held that as registration of such trademarks had been granted under the amended Trademark Act, the provisions of Article 40 of the new Act should apply, so that the three-month opposition period should run from the date of publication of trademark registration, and not from the date of publication of a decision to grant registration, as was the basis for calcu-lation under the old Act.