Article by Abraham Thoppil, Tahir Jawed, Mac Imrie, Jack Marriott and Michael Gagie From Maples and Calder

Design Rights

The Design Rights Registration Law, 2016 (the “Design Rights Law“) will come into force in the Cayman Islands on 1 August 2017. The Design Rights Law will provide for existing registered UK and EU design rights to be registered in, and extended to, the Cayman Islands.

The registration of a UK or EU design right in the Cayman Islands will afford the owner of the right all equivalent rights and remedies allowed in the UK or EU in respect of such design right.

The Cayman Islands does not currently have a registrar of origin for design rights, and the Design Rights Law does not enable design rights to be registered anew in the Cayman Islands.

The new design rights regime supplements other forms of IP protection in the Cayman Islands, such as The Copyright (Cayman Islands) Order, 2015 and the Copyright (Cayman Islands) (Amendment) Order, 2016, which came into force on 30 June 2016 and extend certain provisions of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to the Cayman Islands.¹

Trade Marks

The Trade Marks Law, 2016 also comes into force on 1 August 2017, and will provide for the establishment of a Trade Marks Registry in the Cayman Islands for the registration of local trade marks. After the law comes into force, it will no longer be possible to extend UK, EU or other international trade mark registrations to the Cayman Islands.

Trade marks relating to goods and services will be classified according to the Nice Classification system. The new regime also makes it possible to record registrable transactions (such as assignments, licences and security interests) against a trade mark.

Footnote

1. See our 27 June 2016 update titled New Copyright Regime for the Cayman Islands for more information.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

SOURCE: http://www.mondaq.com/caymanislands/x/612420/Trademark/New+IP+Regimes+For+The+Cayman+Islands