Cambodia's New Trade Marks and Unfair Competition Law

Cambodia has just introduced its long-awaited Trade Mark and Unfair Competition Law which, at time of writing, is awaiting consent by King Sihanouk. Cambodia has struggled for two decades to cast off the stigma of its brutal Khmer Rouge regime. The Cambodian Government is now seeking to stimulate foreign investment by establishing a basic legal structure to govern the country's business environment. The Trade Marks and Unfair Competition Law (which is expected to be followed by a Copyright Law) forms a part of this drive to modernize the economy.

Although trade marks have been registrable in Cambodia for approximately 10 years under an interim system established by Government Decree, there has been no trade mark law in force.

Cambodia has been plagued by petty infringement and trade mark piracy. Although it has been possible to file cancellation proceedings against pirated trade mark registrations which have obviously been misappropriated from foreign proprietors, there have been no effective procedures in place to govern conflict between trade marks in situations which fall short of actual piracy.

The new law introduces formal opposition proceedings for the first time. The opposition deadline is 90 days from the date of publication of the official gazette advertisement for the application. It is possible to file opposition proceedings on a wide range of grounds, including lack of distinctiveness and conflict with a prior registered or well-known trade mark. If no counterstatement is filed, the application will be deemed to be abandoned.

If a counterstatement is filed provision is made for opposition hearings to take place.

The definition of a trade mark under the new law now includes any "visible sign" capable of distinguishing the goods or services of the applicant. This definition suggests that three dimensional trade marks are now registrable in Cambodia. All of the other usual categories of trade marks (such as local script, logos, word marks, packaging, etc.) have always been registrable.

Various categories of trade marks are excluded from registration. In particular, it is prohibited to register trade marks which may mislead the public.

A basic provision is also included in the law which prohibits the registration of trade marks which are identical or confusingly similar to trade marks which are already well-known in the Kingdom of Cambodia for similar goods or services and which belong to another enterprise. It is not necessary for...