ISRAEL Law and Practice Contributed by: Ronit Barzik-Soffer, Luiz Blanc and Rakefet Peled, Reinhold Cohn Group
• a mark that includes a geographical indication for goods whose origin is not in the indicated geo - graphical area, if the geographical indication is misleading in relation to the true geographical area of the origin of the goods; • a mark that includes a geographical indication that is literally correct, but that contains a misrepresen - tation as if the goods originated in another geo - graphical area; • a mark that is identical to a symbol with only a religious meaning; • a mark that has a picture of a person on it, unless the consent of the person concerned has been obtained, and if it is the picture of a person who has died, the registrar will require the consent of the relatives, unless the registrar has reason to believe there are reasonable reasons not to require this; • a mark that consists of numerals, letters or words, which are commonly used to indicate or describe the relevant goods or services or their nature or quality, unless the mark has acquired a distinctive character; • a mark whose usual meaning is geographical or a surname, if it is not presented in a special form, unless it has acquired a distinctive character; and • a mark identifying a wine or alcoholic beverage that includes a geographical indication, if the origin of the wine or alcoholic beverage is not in the same geographic area. 4.11 The Madrid System Israel is a party to the Madrid Protocol, and thus allows trade mark owners to extend their international trade mark protection by designating Israel in their international registration. 5. Trade Mark Procedure for Inter Partes Proceedings 5.1 Timeframes for Filing an Opposition or Cancellation The deadline to oppose a trade mark is within three months of the publication date, non-extendable, but subsequent deadlines are extendable, subject to the other party’s consent.
Any aggrieved person may file a cancellation action within five years from the date of the trade mark regis - tration on the same grounds available for filing oppo - sitions. There is no time limit for filing cancellation actions against trade mark registrations on the grounds of fil - ing in bad faith. Registered trade marks are vulnerable to revocation proceedings if they were not used by their registered owners during three consecutive years after their reg - istration. There is no copyright registration in Israel. 5.2 Legal Grounds for Filing an Opposition or Cancellation The legal grounds for filing an opposition include sev - eral absolute reasons to refuse the trade mark’s regis - tration in accordance with the provisions of the Trade - mark Ordinance and other relative reasons based on an opponent’s claims to be the owner of the mark. Israeli law recognises the dilution of famous registered or unregistered trade marks as a relative ground to attack the use or registration of a conflicting trade mark. Trade marks are vulnerable to cancellation proceed - ings on the same absolute and relative grounds avail - able for filing oppositions, if the registration is likely to encourage unfair competition, on the grounds of non-use or if the trade mark has been filed in bad faith and if there was good faith intention to use the mark. There is no expungement or re-examination proce - dure available in Israel unless an appeal court decides to transfer the matter back to the registrar for recon - sideration of certain points or the entire decision. Regarding copyright – see 5.1 Timeframes for Filing an Opposition or Cancellation. 5.3 Ability to File an Opposition or Revocation/Cancellation Any person may file an opposition. Opponents may rely on prior common law rights in a trade mark based
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