The Legal 500

In Bulgaria inventions are protected through patents and utility models, which must be registered with the Bulgarian Patent Office. The applicable legal act concerning patent and utility models is Bulgarian law on the patents and the registration of utility models (prom. SG. 27/2 apr 1993), which implements the provisions of Directive 2004/48/EC of the European parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

On 9th of March 2010, with 19th issue of the Bulgarian State Gazette were published amendments of the Marks and Geographical Indications Act. The changes mainly affect the procedure of trade marks registration, which is being developed in the Patent Office. The new procedure corresponds to the procedure, which is being performed by the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market – OHIM, administering the trade mark and the design of the Community and thus ensuring for the Bulgarian business environment identical to the one existing within the EU.

Many people believe that the entry of their business into the Companies Register automatically leads to protection of their name as a trademark. However, this is not the case. The name of the company /often ending in AD, OOD or another acronym in the Bulgarian language to indicate its legal form/ is used to identify the company.What is the trademark then^[1]?