Rule 17 Provisional Refusal

1.

a)

A notification of provisional refusal may comprise a declaration stating the grounds on which the Office making the notification considers that protection cannot be granted in the Contracting Party concerned (‘ex officio provisional refusal’) or a declaration that protection cannot be granted in the Contracting Party concerned because an opposition has been filed (‘provisional refusal based on an opposition’) or both.

b)

A notification of provisional refusal shall relate to one international registration, shall be dated and shall be signed by the Office making it.

2.

(i)

the Office making the notification,

(ii)

the number of the international registration, preferably accompanied by other indications enabling the identity of the international registration to be confirmed, such as the verbal elements of the mark or the basic application or basic registration number,

(iii)

[Deleted]

(iv)

all the grounds on which the provisional refusal is based, together with a reference to the corresponding essential provisions of the law,

(v)

where the grounds on which the provisional refusal is based relate to a mark which has been the subject of an application or registration and with which the mark that is the subject of the international registration appears to be in conflict, the filing date and number, the priority date, if any, the registration date and number, if available, the name of the owner and of the representative, if any, their addresses, if possible, and a representation of the former mark or an indication of how to access that representation, together with the list of all or the relevant goods and services in the application or registration of the former mark, it being understood that the said list may be in the language of the said application or registration,

(vi)

either that the grounds on which the provisional refusal is based affect all the goods and services or an indication of the goods and services which are affected, or are not affected, by the provisional refusal,

(vii)

the time limit, which shall be no less than two months1), for filing a request for review of, or appeal against, the ex officio provisional refusal or the provisional refusal based on an opposition and, as the case may be, for filing a response to the opposition,

(viii)

where the time limit referred to in paragraph (2)(vii) begins on a date other than the date on which the International Bureau transmits a copy of the notification to the holder or the date on which the holder receives said copy, an indication of the date on which the said time limit begins and ends,

(ix)

the authority with which such request for review, appeal or response should be filed, and

(x)

an indication, where applicable, that the request for review, the appeal or the response has to be filed through the intermediary of a representative whose address is within the territory of the Contracting Party whose Office has pronounced the refusal.

3.

4.

5.

a)

[Deleted]

b)

[Deleted]

c)

[Deleted]

d)

The Office of a Contracting Party may, in a declaration, notify the Director General that, in accordance with the law of the said Contracting Party,

(i)

any provisional refusal that has been notified to the International Bureau is subject to review by the said Office, whether or not such review has been requested by the holder, and

(ii)

the decision taken on the said review may be the subject of a further review or appeal before the Office.

Where this declaration applies and the Office is not in a position to communicate the said decision directly to the holder of the international registration concerned, the Office shall, notwithstanding the fact that all procedures before the said Office relating to the protection of the mark may not have been completed, send the statement referred to in Rule 18ter(2) or (3) to the International Bureau immediately following the said decision. Any further decision affecting the protection of the mark shall be sent to the International Bureau in accordance with Rule 18ter(4).

e)

The Office of a Contracting Party may, in a declaration, notify the Director General that, in accordance with the law of the said Contracting Party, any ex officio provisional refusal that has been notified to the International Bureau is not open to review before the said Office. Where this declaration applies, any ex officio notification of a provisional refusal by the said Office shall be deemed to include a statement in accordance with Rule 18ter(2)(ii) or (3).

6.

7.