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URSB to deregister over 700 expired trademarks

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The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) has said it will strike off the list 702 expired trademarks owned by various companies if they are not renewed within one month.

Bemanya Twebaze, the URSB Registrar General, who has had the list of expired trademarks published, said that the owners of the trademarks stand to lose if they are removed from the register since they can be availed to other entities for use in business.

According to Twebaze, the owners of the trademarks which have expired can renew their registration within a month, and only have to pay the renewal fee and ‘any additional fee as may be applicable’.

He said a registered trademark has duration of 7 years, renewable for every ten years after the first registration. He adds that URSB derives its powers from Trademarks Act 2010, to register trademarks.

“Trademarks struck off the register become available for any other members of the public to use,” Twebaze warned, and listed the expired trademarks prominent among them Airtel’s ‘Pakalast’, ‘Sheraton’- owned by Sheraton International, ‘NTV’- owned by Kenya’s Nation Media Group and ‘M-Sente’, owned by Uganda Telecom now under receivership.

Other familiar trademarks that face delisting from the URSB list are ‘Nile Lager’- owned by Nile Breweries and ‘Bell’ -owned by the East African Breweries. The other is ‘Movit’-owned by beauty products maker-Movit Products. ‘Imperial Bank Ltd’- owned by Imperial Bank Uganda is another trademark under threat.

According to the list of defaulting companies, some last renewed their trademarks in 2008 while others first registered in 2010.

Sources at URSB say very few companies and other entities in Uganda have their trademarks renewed, though they add they have received inquiries about the availability of some of the affected trademarks.

 

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