Filing in Kurdistan and Baghdad
As You know, the Kurdistan Ministry of Trade and Industry announced that the trademark registrations before Iraqi Trademarks Office in Baghdad no longer cover Kurdistan jurisdiction. In this sense, Kurdistan is now a completely independent IP jurisdiction and the protection have to be sought directly before Kurdistan authorities.
Kindly be advised that, two options of obtaining trademark protection in Kurdistan is applied: request an extension of protection in Kurdistan for the already registered trademarks in Iraq or file directly in Erbil, before the Kurdistan Registrar. Taking this into account, we recommend our clients to file their trademarks directly in Kurdistan, especially for the well-known trademarks, in order to avoid the speculation from third parties.
For further information in respect of the above, please contact Baianat-IP Iraq office at iraq@baianat-ip.com