The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to notify the deposit by the Government of the Dominican Republic, on October 17, 2019, of its instrument of accession to the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration of October 31, 1958, as revised at Stockholm on July 14, 1967, and amended on September 28, 1979 ("Lisbon Agreement").
The said instrument contained the following declarations:
- that for the purposes of the application of the Lisbon Agreement in the Dominican Republic, "… the applicable guiding principle shall be that priority for the national registration of a prior trademark shall confer rights enforceable against the application for registration of a subsequent Appellation of International Origin using the same trademark. Similarly, terms that have become generic may not be eligible for registration as Appellations of International Origin under the Lisbon Agreement; and
- likewise, Appellations of International Origin composed of compound terms for which registration is sought under the Lisbon Agreement may be registered either in their entirety, or registration may be granted for only one term, having due regard to the prior existence of similar terms in the national register…".
The said Agreement will enter into force, with respect to the Dominican Republic, on January 17, 2020.
October 17, 2019