ISRAEL Law and Practice Contributed by: Ronit Barzik-Soffer, Luiz Blanc and Rakefet Peled, Reinhold Cohn Group
4.7 Revocation, Change, Amendment or Correction of an Application The registrar will allow the following corrections and amendments in a trade mark application or registra - tion upon request by the applicant or registrant: • the correction of a mistake in the applicant’s name or the applicant’s address; • making a change to the list of goods and services that does not expand the description; • adding a disclaimer or notification that does not expand the rights conferred by the registration; • voluntary cancellation of the trade mark application or registration; and/or • consolidation of several registrations of the same mark, which were all filed on the same date. Generally, as long as a trade mark is not yet registered, whether already allowed or not, the registrar may cor - rect a mistake in the pending application, including insubstantial details in the mark itself. 4.8 Dividing a Trade Mark Application A trade mark applicant may request to divide the application according to the classes included in the application. Each of the applications which survives the division will be considered as filed on the same date as the original application. A typical situation in which a trade mark applicant may request a division of the application is when a citation or an opposition is more relevant to some of the classes included in the application than to others. If ownership has been transferred with regard to some of the goods for which a trade mark is registered or pending, the registrar will divide the trade mark reg - istration/application into separate registrations/appli - cations. 4.9 Incorrect Information in an Application Whoever is harmed by the fact that a certain entry was not recorded in the register or was omitted from it, or was recorded in it without sufficient reason, or remained in it illegally, or an error or defect occurred in it, may submit to the registrar a request for cor - rection (including total cancellation), in the prescribed manner.
The registrar’s decision on such a request is subject to appeal before a district court. Registered trade marks may be cancelled upon requests by third parties on the same grounds avail - able in opposition, within five years after registration. There is no time limit to cancellation on the grounds of filing in bad faith. Providing the registrar with false information in con - nection with a trade mark application is a criminal offence. 4.10 Refusal of Registration Registration may be refused on absolute grounds that generally pertain to characteristics inherent in the trade mark itself. The following marks are not eligible for registration: • a mark implying a connection with the president or with his house or the patronage of the president, and a mark that can be inferred from said connec - tion or patronage; • the Israeli flag, institutions or symbols, flags of for - eign countries and international organisations and their symbols, and any sign similar to one of them; • official pedigree marks, official signs and seals in which a state usually indicates supervision or guarantee, and any mark similar to them, as well as a mark from which it can be concluded that the owner benefits from the patronage of a head of state or government, or that the owner sup - plies goods or renders services to a head of state or government, all if it has not been proved to the registrar that the owner of the mark is entitled to use the same mark; • a mark in which one of the following appears – “patent”, “registered patent”, “according to a state document”, “registered”, “registered model”, “copyright”, “imitation of this – counterfeit”, or an expression similar to these; • a sign that harms or may harm public order or morality; • a mark that may deceive the public or that contains a false indication of origin or a mark that encour - ages unfair competition;
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