Bahamas - New IP laws in force
As reported last week on our website, it was announced by the Bahamas IPO (BIPO) in a verbal communication on 25 February 2025 that new IP laws relating to copyright, patents, and trade marks became retroactively effective from 1 February 2025. The implementing regulations and official fees have not yet been promulgated, and so BIPO cannot yet process IP applications under the new laws.
We are still awaiting written confirmation from BIPO of the above news, and so it is still uncertain as to how both existing and new IP cases will be handled. However, we have analysed the new laws and can advise of the following salient points of particular significance:
Trade marks:
- Service marks are provided for in the new law;
- The initial term of protection of a trade mark, and its subsequent renewal terms, will be 10 years as opposed to the 14 years provided for under the previous law. In the absence of any transitional provisions, we assume that all applications filed before 1 February 2025 will continue to have a 14-year term, whilst those filed on or after that date will have a 10-year term;
- International classification of goods and services will apply;
- Renewal requires that “any registration be made to conform with prescribed regulations”, which suggests that re-classification may be required on renewal of a trade mark;
- There is no mention of accession to the Madrid Protocol in the new law, although a verbal indication has been given by the IPO that this may occur.
- There is no mention of moving to a multi-class system, although this may be provided for in the new Regulations.
- There are provisions for filing defensive applications to protect well-known trade marks.
Patents
- The law excludes from patentability, inter alia, diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals, except for products (in particular, substances or compositions) for use in any of these methods;
- Patents will be granted for a term of 20 years under the new law, instead of 16 years under the previous law. Annual fees will become payable on the first and each subsequent anniversary of the filing date – under the previous law, annuities were only payable on the fourth anniversary onwards. A 6-month grace period for late payment of renewal fees along with a surcharge is provided for.
- The new law contemplates the implementation of the Patent Co-operation Treaty;
- The new law repeals the previous Patents Act 2015, and specifies that any application that was pending on the date of commencement of the new Act shall be dealt with under the repealed Act, but that the grant shall thereafter be subject to the new Act. A patent granted under the repealed Act shall remain in force for 20 years from the date of the application, although we assume that this longer term will not apply to patents which had already expired on 1 February 2025. We are also hopeful that, for any extant old-law patents which will now benefit from the 20-year term provided for under the new law, we will not have to pay any catch-up renewal fees corresponding to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th annuities.
We are awaiting further clarification of these and other points, which we hope will be forthcoming from BIPO shortly. In the meantime, we would be pleased to try and answer any questions which you may have.
