CAYMAN ISLANDS
CAYMAN ISLANDS’ GOVERNMENT PASSED TWO NEW RULES IN REGARDS TO THE DESIGN REGISTRATION LAW AND AN AMENDMENT TO THE CURRENT PATENT AND TRADEMARK LAWS
The Cayman Islands’ government passed two new laws in regards to intellectual property matters.
One of them is the design registration law which will provide owners of original designs registered in the EU with the opportunity to extend their rights to the Cayman Islands. There are also new aspects of annuities and trademarks.
With the new rules in Cayman Islands it will be possible for industrial design holders which rights were already registered in EU to extend the rights to this jurisdiction. Since the applications should be accepted on Cayman Island due to the fact that they have already been registered in the EU, it will no longer be necessary to conduct a pre-application search before the Cayman Designs Register. The examiner will only have to check that the applied design complies with basic registrability elements.
The duration and validity of the Cayman Island registration will depend on the duration and validity of the underlying community registry. Annual maintenance fees will become payable on January 1st of each year until the expiration or renewal given by the Cayman Islands Design Registration.
On the other hand, Cayman Island’s competent authority amended the Patent and Trademark Law in order to eliminate all references to “trademarks” in the existing regulations, in order to clear the way for the new Trademark’s Law expected to come into force in 2017.