While some countries in the Caribbean have an efficient trade
mark renewal process, for the most part renewals cannot be filed
electronically and can be more time-consuming than brand owners and
foreign trade mark practitioners may expect based on their own
local practice. Ashleigh Miller, a paralegal in Ogier's
Intellectual Property group, encourages brand owners to start
thinking about their Caribbean renewal strategy at least 12 months
before expiry and provide renewal instructions as early as six
months prior to the deadline for the following reasons:
1. Unclear status of registrations
Sometimes we receive instructions to renew trade mark
registrations which, upon further investigation, have already
expired, occasionally due to a prior renewal application filed by a
third party going unprocessed due to incompleteness or one or more
miscalculations of the next renewal deadline based on a misreading
of the registration certificate leading to incorrect docketing.
