BVI offers a new project concerning trademarks

30.01.2012 23 January 2012 the BVI Government provided the state Parliament with a draft of new legislative act of intellectual property for its consideration. It is planned that a new Trademarks Bill 2012 should replace the current Trade Marks Act (Cap. 158).
The legislative project provides a more detailed regulation of the process of trademark registration in the BVI as well as builds the real mechanisms of protection of a registered trade mark from infringement by third parties.

Thus, Trademarks Bill of 2012 names the mandatory requisites for application for trademark registration, the stages of its consideration as well as persons and bodies authorized to accept and consider these applications. The project contains a number of requirements to be met for trademark to be registered in the Register.
Trademarks Bill 2012 provides court protection of the violated rights of the owner of a registered trade mark. Consideration of such cases occurs in the order of action proceedings.

Trademarks Bill 2012 – is quite a voluminous document, it consists of eight parts, which contain 138 articles, and 4 schedules.

Expert’s opinion

“The development of new drafts on intellectual property – is a vivid world trend of recent times. Let’s recall that at the end of 2012 the European Commission should present a new directive in the mentioned sphere. It’s likely that the British Virgin Islands will not keep long in coming and give the country's draft “Trademarks Bill” dated 23.01.2012 developed by the Government the form of the law. Such a trend will have a positive effect on improvement of legislation in various countries in the field of intellectual property. Based on existing development of Legislatures, states derive their own normative base to a new level”.

Vorontsova Maria ( the lawyer of international consulting department of Honest&Bright)