Libya – Developments in the IP law regime

Issuance of first trademark registration certificates
The Libyan Trademark Office has just issued the first registration certificate in 30 years. This development comes as a result of the Ministerial Resolution No. 316 of May 2009 to modify the form of the trademark registration certificate. The Trademark Office has started issuing certificates on a priority basis according to the filing dates.

The reason for the delay in issuance of certificates of registration was that the Trademark Office was not settled on the form of the certificate. Further, the Trademark Office was receiving a huge number of trademark applications and it was not fully equipped to deal with the high volume of work. The long period of economic sanctions further impacted on the situation.