The Ministry of Economy has issued a new decree (No. 586) of 2024, which introduces the following requirements for trademark renewals: Financial Statement Requirement: Applicants are now required to submit…
Effective February 11, 2024, the Sudanese Trademarks Office has resumed operations. This comes after an almost 10-month hiatus due to the civil unrest within the country, during which operations were unavoidably suspended. The office is no longer at its original Khartoum location and has relocated to Port Sudan. It is currently only staffed by two members.
With the resumption of services, the TM Office will soon begin accepting filings for new trademark applications, renewals, recordals, etc. However, it is important to note that subsequent procedures such as the examination of applications and submission of supporting documents will commence only upon the re-establishment of a trademark database. It is important to highlight that the records at the Khartoum TMO were lost during altercations and that the Port Sudan Office is conducting efforts to recreate the database. Eldib & Co is participating in these efforts by providing official data belonging to our clients to the TMO for insertion into their system.
Exceptional Measures for Trademark Filings:
Urgency is given to applications claiming priority will be accepted by the Sudanese TMO and filing is limited to deposit of the application, with no substantive examination taking place until the database is complete.
At the current time, continued prosecution of pending matters and submission of declarations of nationality will is not yet possible. It is also unclear when publication will resume.
We have been advised that some time extensions will be granted for deadlines that have fallen during the closure, but they have not yet advertised the time limit on the extensions.
Additional procedures for renewals, name changes, address changes, mergers, assignments, licensing, and publication in the Gazette will be brought forth in the TMO’s new operational plan.
