English

Bulgaria
Bulgarie
Bulgarien
Report Q 155
by the Bulgarian Group
Conflicts between trademarks and company and business names
The Bulgarian legislation in the Law on Commerce gives definition of a business name. A
business name is the name under which a merchant shall practice his occupation and
under which he shall sign. The law does not make any difference between company and
business names. The business name shall contain the kind of the merchant (private
merchant, limited liability company etc.), and it may also denote the purpose of a business,
the names of the partners, and a freely chosen suffix, and shall be inscribed in Bulgarian.
The business name shall be true, shall not deceive, and shall not be offensive to public
order or morals.
A company (merchant) is registered at the Commercial register of the district court with its
business name following the respective procedures for court registration. The business
name shall be "unique" for the respective district court. The criteria for the "unique"
character of the business name are practically different from these for similarity between
marks. There are 29 district courts in the country and the process of connecting all of them
in a centralized searching system, including for the "uniqueness" of the business name is
almost finished.
The trademarks are registered at the Patent Office following the provisional of the Law on
Marks and Geographical Indications which provides special protection for well-known
marks as well.
The conflict between marks and business names is not solved by the law, including in the
cases of well-known marks and business names. There are explicit provisions regarding
well-known marks. There are also provisions in the Law on Protection of the Competition,
which prohibit the use of other person's marks and business names in a way, which could
harm the interests of the competitors and/or consumers.
The use of a mark may be prohibited on the grounds of an earlier right of another person,
such earlier right enjoying protection under another law, namely: a) right on name and
portrait; d) industrial property right.
There is no link between the Trademark Office, and the Register of Business names in
order to coordinate their practices.
1
The disputes arising from conflicts between marks and business names are decided by the
courts. There is a parallelism with conflicts between trademarks and internet domain
names.
The Bulgarian National Group of AIPPI is of the opinion that the question shall be
discussed and solutions found both nationally, and internationally, especially in view of the
Internet domain names, which add to the conflict.
Résumé
La legislation bulgare definit dans la Loi de commerce la raison sociale et ne fait pas de
distinction entre le nom commercial et la raison sociale. La raison sociale doit etre
enregistree dans le registre du commrece du tribunal departemental respectif, en meme
temps que l'enregistrement du commercant et doit repondre a des exigences respectives.
La marque de commerce doit etre enregistree a l'Office des Brevets de la Republique de
Bulgarie aux sens la Loi sur les marques et les indication geographiques.
Le conflict entre la raison sociale et la marque de commerce n'est pas regle par la loi et les
litiges sont examines par le tribunal en appliquant les deux lois ci-dessus, ainsi que la Loi
sur la protection de la concurence.
Le Group National Bulgare considere que la question concernant le conflit entre ces deux
objects de la propriete intellectuelle doit etre examinee tant sur le plan national que sur le
plan international et plus particulierement compte tenu du nom de domain Internet qui fait
part de ce conflit.
2