Legge 16 giugno 1999

Legge 16 giugno 1999: “Law on Trademarks and Geographical Indications”.

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Chapter III – Prerequisites for Trademark Registration

Section 6. Absolute Grounds for Refusal and Invalidation of Trademark Registration

(1) The following signs may not be registered as trademarks (if they have been registered, such registration may be declared invalid pursuant to the provisions of this Law):

1) those which cannot constitute a trademark, that is, signs which do not comply with the provisions of Section 3 of this Law;
2) those which lack any distinctive character with respect to the goods or services applied for;
3) those which consist solely of signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose (functional task), value, geographical origin, or the time of production of the goods or of providing the services, or other characteristics of the goods or services;
4) those which consist solely of signs or indications (general signs) which have become customary in the current language or in fair and established practices of the trade to designate the goods or services applied for;
5) those which consist solely of a shape which is directly determined by the kind of goods (the shape results directly from the nature of the goods themselves), or which is necessary to obtain a particular technical result, or which gives substantial value to the goods;
6) those which are contrary to public order or to socially accepted principles of morality;
7) those which may deceive consumers regarding the nature, quality or geographical origin, or the like, of the goods or services;
8) those which contain signs, the registration of which, would be refused or invalidated pursuant to Article 6-ter of the Paris Convention, including coats of arms and flags of the member countries of the Paris Union, their official hallmarks (assay marks), control and warranty marks, as well as the emblems, flags, and names of international organisations and the abbreviations thereof, without authorisation by the competent authorities;
9) those which, without authorisation by the competent authorities given pursuant to the procedures specified in the regulatory enactments of the Republic of Latvia, contain the official heraldry approved at the State level, national decorations, Official Service insignia, as well as signs for official hallmarks (assay marks), control, quality, warranty, and safety of utilising goods which are used with respect to identical or similar goods or services in Latvia, or any other marks of high symbolic value, as well as religious symbols; and
10) with respect to wines – those which contain or consist of a geographical indication identifying the origin of the wines, or with respect to spirits which contain or consist of a geographical indication identifying the origin of the spirits, if such is not the genuine place of origin of the wines or spirits for which the trademark registration has been applied for.

(2) A trademark also shall not be registered or, if registered, may be liable to be declared invalid pursuant to the provisions of this Law if the application for registration of the trademark was clearly made in bad faith by the applicant.

(3) A trademark registration may not be refused on the basis of the provisions of Paragraph one, Clauses 2, 3 or 4 of this Section, and shall not be declared invalid on the basis of the same provisions if, as a result of the use of the mark, it has acquired a distinctive character in the perception of the relevant consumers in Latvia with respect to the goods and services for which registration has been applied for.

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