Libyan Trademarks Office Announces Cancellation Mandate for Unrenewed Trademarks

On February 25, 2024, the Director of the Libyan Trademarks Office issued official Decision No. (335) of 2024, which mandates the cancellation of all previously published trademarks that have not been renewed within the legally prescribed renewal deadlines outlined in Article 1257 of Commercial Activity Law No. 23 of 2010. The key provisions of this law are as follows:

Registered trademarks are initially protected for a period of ten years, with the option of renewal for subsequent identical periods upon the request of the trademark owner, each time within the final year of the protection period.
Trademark owners have a six-month window from the expiration date of their protection period to request renewal. Failure to do so will result in the automatic cancellation of the trademark by the trademark office.
After cancellation, a trademark can be re-registered exclusively in favor of its owner within three years from the cancellation date, following the prescribed conditions and registration procedure.

It's important to note that this decision specifically targets trademarks published before 2021 (with trademark numbers below 22100), with no trademarks published in the years 2022 and 2023, respectively. The rationale behind this decision is that published trademarks are essentially considered as registered, and therefore, they must be renewed before the expiration of the 10-year protection period, regardless of whether a registration certificate was issued. Trademarks published in 2024 are exempt from this cancellation. The decision took immediate effect upon its issuance date.