Agreement on measures for the prevention and suppression of use of false trademarks and geographical instructions

of June 4, 1999

The State Parties of this agreement on behalf of the governments, further - the Parties,

based on the Agreement on measures for protection of industrial property and creation of Interstate council on questions of protection of industrial property of March 12, 1993, the Agreement on carrying out the approved antimonopoly policy of December 23, 1993, and also on the Agreement on cooperation on suppression of offenses in the field of intellectual property of March 6, 1998,

recognizing importance of joint efforts on implementation of consumer protection and producers from sales of goods with use of false trademarks and geographical instructions,

being guided by the universally recognized norms of international law,

attaching importance to expansion of trade and economic relations between the Parties,

for the purpose of coordination of collateral actions according to the prevention and suppression of use of false trademarks and geographical instructions, and also the facts of application of methods of unfair competition,

agreed as follows:

Article 1.

For the purposes of this agreement the following terms mean:

goods - the subject satisfying any public requirement and made for exchange, that is having the value which is established in the course of its exchange for other goods;

the trademark - designation for difference of goods of one physical persons and legal entity from homogeneous goods of other legal entities and physical persons;

geographical instructions - designations which identify goods origin from the territories of the Parties or their regions, or areas where quality, the reputation or other characteristics of goods substantially correspond to its geographical origin;

the false trademark - the trademark used by the third party in defiance of the rights of the owner of the trademark or the sign containing false indications of origin of goods, and also data or such element which can mislead consumers;

legal remedies - the package of measures for the prevention and suppression of use of false trademarks and geographical instructions permitted to use according to the operating legal regime of the Parties;

the concerned party - any physical person and/or legal entity involved in production, production, sale or the consumption of goods which is in the area in a false manner specified as the place of goods origin or in the area where there is this area, or in in a false manner said country or in the country where false geographical specifying about goods origin or the false trademark is applied.

Article 2.

The parties cooperate in questions:

identification and suppression of the facts of use of false trademarks and geographical instructions;

preventions of penetration through the customs borders in the territory of other Parties of goods with false trademarks and geographical instructions.

Article 3.

Approval of measures for the prevention and suppression of use of false trademarks and geographical instructions of the Party is performed on the basis of collateral actions and voluntarily assumed liabilities.

Article 4.

Concerning geographical instructions of the Party provide legal remedies to concerned parties with the purpose to prevent use:

a) any means in case of designation of goods or its presentation which specify (or cause association) other, than true the place of goods origin and thus mislead consumers concerning geographical goods origin;

b) any actions which can be considered as unfair competition within Article 10-bis of the Parisian convention on protection of industrial property.

Article 5.

The parties owing to the obligations according to their national legal system or on reasonable request of the concerned party refuse registration of the trademark or assignment of rights on the trademark or recognize invalid registration of the trademark or assignment of rights for the trademark consisting of geographical specifying or containing it if use of geographical specifying in the trademark for the goods which are not coming from the specified territory of any Party misleads consumers concerning the true place of origin of such goods.

Article 6.

Legal remedies according to Articles 4 and 5 of this agreement are applied also to geographical instructions which though are literally true concerning the territory, the region or the area from where there are goods, give to consumers wrong idea of territorial goods origin.

Article 7.

The parties provide legal remedies for the purpose of the prevention of use of the geographical instructions identifying territorial origin of wines or hard alcoholic drinks for these types of the drinks which actually are not coming from the place specified in geographical specifying including in cases when such geographical instructions are used in transfer or are followed by specifying of the true place of origin, or such explanations as "type", "type", "style", "imitation" or similar.

Article 8.

Registration of the trademark for wines or hard alcoholic drinks which consists of geographical specifying or contains it it shall be refused or registration shall be acknowledged invalid if it is provided by the national legal system of the Party, or at the request of the concerned party concerning those wines or hard alcoholic drinks which have no this geographical origin.

Article 9.

In case of use of identical geographical instructions for wines or hard alcoholic drinks legal remedies are provided to each geographical specifying on condition of observance of provisions of Article 6 of this agreement.

For the purpose of providing equal conditions for producers and prevention of introduction of consumers in delusion each Party determines symbols on which identical geographical instructions will differ one from another.

Article 10.

To facilitate legal remedies of geographical instructions, the Parties hold negotiations concerning organization of multilateral systems of registration of geographical instructions and notifications on their protection in the territories of the Parties.

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