New trade mark law for Uganda
7/10/2010

After an initial "false start", we are now able to advise that the new Uganda Trademarks Act no. 17, 2010 was published in the Gazette on 03 September and has come into operation as of that date.

The most encouraging development in trade mark law for Uganda is the long anticipated introduction of provisions regarding the registration of service marks. We encourage all clients to contact us in this regard, so we are able to file their important service marks as a matter of urgency.

Another rather curious development is the requirement under Section 5 that an applicant "shall carry out a search to ascertain whether a trade mark exists in the register on payment of a prescribed fee." Precisely how this will operate in practice is open to some speculation, but it would seem that applicants will need to couple their filing instructions to a request that an availability search be conducted prior to the lodging of the application/s, in order to comply with this requirement.

It is indeed regrettable, but Uganda has not simultaneously published enabling Regulations (as has been the case in other African countries seeking to "modernise" their trade mark laws), making it uncertain as to what fees are to apply (presumably what has been in force up to now) and how the pre-filing search is to be implemented. What is clear is that while multiple-class applications are not yet available, the classification that will apply is the 9th edition of the Nice Classification. Presumably this will eradicate the difficulties we have encountered in recent times regarding the Registrar's unilateral application of the 3rd edition of the classification, to the letter, regardless of specific filing instructions.

Questions and enquiries regarding this change can be directed to either Simon Brown or Megan Moerdijk in our International Department (AFRICA) or to {encode="africa@adamsadams.co.za" title="africa@adamsadams.co.za"}