ARMENIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Sarkis Knyazyan, Svetlana Mkrtchyan, Anahit Aloyan and Rita Parzyan, Concern Dialog
authorised by the brand owner (owner of trade mark), is considered as or constitutes a trade mark infringement, and is regulated by the same trade mark laws and regulations. Piracy, on the other hand – ie, illegal/unauthorised reproduc - tions of copyrightable works, is considered as or constitutes a copyright infringement and is regulated by the same copyright laws and regu - lations. Armenia law imposes administrative penalties and criminal sanctions for the sale of counter - feit alcoholic beverages, baby food, biologically active supplements, drugs, medicinal substanc - es, herbal raw materials, auxiliary substances, medical products or investigational pharmaceu - tical products. 8. Litigating Trade Mark and Copyright Claims 8.1 Special Procedural Provisions for Trade Mark or Copyright Proceedings The Board of Appeals of the Armenian Intellec - tual Property Office is the only state authority that has special procedural provisions for trade mark appeals. The main function of the Board of Appeals is to make a final decision, as a state authority, on registration or refusal of trade mark applications, as well as declaring trade marks as well-known, in Armenia. Armenia does not have specialised IP courts, but has legal judges, who specialise in IP. There are no jury members in the Armenian court system and the law does not allow the parties to have influence on who the
mark for the same or similar goods/services. In some cases, the goods/services may be differ - ent, but there still may be a likelihood of con - sumer confusion. The availability of a registered trade mark allows the owner to attempt to stop similar uses of a trade mark, as well. The own - ers of unregistered trade marks do not receive any exclusive rights with respect to their unreg - istered trade marks. The courts may refuse to admit the complaints of unregistered trade mark owners, due to the absence of statutory exclu - sive rights. However, if the owner of a registered trade mark has knowingly tolerated the use of a later registered trade mark for five consecutive years, the later trade mark may become incon - testable. 8.3 Costs of Litigating Infringement Actions Attorney fees for drafting a complaint and repre - sentation of a rights-holder’s interests before the court, up to the court decision, may vary from law firm to law firm. A professional IP attorney, with a partner level, may charge between EUR300–400 per hour. A blended hourly rate may be between EUR250–350. Depending on the complexity of the matter, law firms may spend up to 15 hours on drafting and submitting the complaint to the court and charge a fee for each hearing, regard - less of the number of hours spent on each hear - ing. 9. Defences and Exceptions to Infringement 9.1 Defences to Trade Mark Infringement Armenian law does not explicitly define or rec - ognise the following as a defence; however, it does not prohibit the use of priority, objection for non-use, licence, bad faith, fair use, parody/ satire, own-name, limitation, violation of compe -
decision-maker should be. 8.2 Effect of Registration
A registered trade mark provides the owner of the mark the exclusive right to exclude others from using a confusingly similar or identical trade
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