Page 384 - Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

Article 11.24: Exceptions

A Party may provide limited exceptions to the rights conferred by a
trademark, such as fair use of descriptive terms, provided that such
exceptions take account of the legitimate interests of the owner of the
trademark and of third parties.

Article 11.25: Protection of Trademarks that Predate Geographical
Indications

Each Party shall protect trademarks where they predate, in its
jurisdiction, geographical indications, in accordance with the TRIPS
Agreement.

Article 11.26: Protection of Well-Known Trademarks

1. Each Party shall provide for appropriate measures to refuse or
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cancel the registration, and to prohibit the use, of a trademark
that is identical or similar to a well-known trademark 19, 20 for
identical or similar goods or services, if the use of that trademark
is likely to cause confusion with the prior well-known trademark.

2. Each Party recognises the importance of the Joint
Recommendation Concerning Provisions on the Protection of
Well-Known Marks as adopted by the Assembly of the Paris
Union for the Protection of Industrial Property and the General
Assembly of WIPO at the Thirty-Fourth Series of Meetings of the
Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO, 20 to 29 September
1999.

3. No Party shall require, as a condition for determining that a
trademark is a well-known trademark, that the trademark has

18 For greater certainty, a Party may comply with the obligation to provide for
appropriate measures to prohibit the use of the trademark that is identical or similar to
a well-known trademark under this paragraph by providing its judicial authorities with
the authority to prohibit the use of such a trademark.

19 For the purposes of this paragraph, a Party may treat “a reproduction, an imitation,
or a translation of a well-known trademark” as “identical or similar to a well-known
trademark”.

20 The Parties understand that a well-known trademark is one that was already well-
known before, as determined by a Party, the application for, registration of, or use of
the first-mentioned trademark.

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