The Brunei Darussalam Intellectual Property Office (BruIPO) has announced that from 26 January 2017 onwards, some major changes to the Act and Rules will take effect. This is, of course, in addition to the most substantive change i.e. the country’s accession to Madrid Protocol on that same month.

Section 4 has deleted the word “visually” from the definition of trademarks, thereby enabling certain non-traditional marks (NTM) like sound and smell marks to be accepted in Brunei.

The publication of trade marks in the Government Gazette will be replaced by the Trade Marks Journal and this will be made available on BruIPO’s webiste starting from 01 April 2017. This is pursuant to the new Section 106A.

The Third Schedule of the Rules has finally been amended to now include classes 43, 44 and 44 in accordance with the 11th Edition of the Nice Classification.

Please do not to hesitate to contact the Trade Mark team in our Malaysian office for further information.