Trademark Bill to help protect Fijian brands
THE proposed Trademark Bill 2020 will protect Fijian brands from being used by foreign companies.
This was revealed by the chairman of the parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights Alvick Maharaj during a round of public submissions on the proposed legislation in Nadi earlier this week.
He explained that the proposed Bill was part of Fiji’s ratification of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Convention.
“Basically all of the countries that have signed the convention, they cannot allow a company to register a name that has been already trademarked by another company in another country,” he said.
“One of the examples that we don’t use is word ‘Fiji’ in Fiji Water. That word was not registered as a trademark and this was a blunder of previous governments so the company went ahead and trademarked that word.
“That is one of the reasons we are not able to market or produce any other products that have ‘Fiji’ on it because they have actually registered that word in the US.
“Basically this is why you can’t find Fiji Bitter in the US.
“We have ratified the convention and this is the step that we are taking to create the relevant domestic laws.”
The proposed Trademarks Bill aims to provide for the registration of trademarks in Fiji and for related matters such as, defining the scope of rights protected by registered trademarks; specifying the procedures for registering trademarks in Fiji; deterring counterfeit activity in relation to registered trademarks in Fiji; and ensuring that Fiji’s trademark regime takes account of international developments.