English
It is not necessary to register a trademark in order to obtain rights. The first party to use the mark secures the right to a trademark.
The Latvia trademark office is available online at this URL: http://www.lrpv.lv/
No. There is no need to use the mark before filing the application.
Third parties can use these grounds to oppose a trademark application:
- Rights in industrial properties
- Rights in a name of company
- Rights in a (famous) personal name
- Rights in a registered design
- Rights in a trade name
- Rights in a notorious mark
- Proprietary rights
- Breach of copyright
- Registration of mark under a different name like agent’s or representative’s name
- Descriptive mark
- Misleading/deceptive/disparaging mark
- Unauthorized use of protected state emblems or national insignia
- Unregistered domain name
Interested parties or owners of an earlier right can initiate an opposition to the registration of a trademark.
Yes. A registered mark can be cancelled on these grounds:
- Use requirements are not satisfied according to Section VIII.A.
- Rights in an industrial property
- Mark is against moral principles or against public policy
- Use of geographical indication
- Mark is generic/common
- Use of a well-known personal name, pseudonym, facsimile or portrait of a person
- Rights in registered designs
- Rights in trade names
- Registration under a representative’s name like an agent’s name
- Rights in a famous or notorious mark
- Breach of copyright
- Mark is functional
- Mark lacks distinctiveness
- Mark is misleading the consumers or disparaging to image of other parties
- Mark is descriptive of the good’s characteristics or intended purpose
- Proprietary rights
The following rights are obtained by the trademark owner after registration:
- Exclusive right to use the mark
- Right to object to later conflicting applications
- Right to request for an action to cancel later conflicting registrations
- Right to sue third parties for infringing the mark
- Right to demand payment from third parties that infringed the mark
- Right to authorize third parties to use the mark
- Right to request for the confiscation of counterfeit imported goods
The opposition will start on the date the trademark registration was published. For national registration, it will end three months after the publication date. For international registration, it will end four months after the publication date.
Yes. Latvia is a party to the Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol.
No. Periodic statements of use are not needed.