The Infringements of Registered Trademarks and Remedies Under Ethiopian Trademark Law: An Analysis of the Law and Practice
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Date
2024-09-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The paper aimed at assessing the legal gaps and practical challenges in trademark enforcement and adjudication of trademark infringements under the existing trademark regime. Purposive sampling method was employed to gather information from EIPA officials, lawyers, Federal Prosecutors, and judges to assess the existing enforcement challenges related to trademark rights. Most importantly, there is strong reliance on disposed cases at Federal Courts to evaluate the current enforcement practices related to infringement of the trademark rights. Current practices in the Federal Courts indicate that courts are asserting jurisdiction in a manner inconsistent with the rules outlined in the Federal Courts proclamation. Furthermore, there are instances where courts completely refuse jurisdiction and dismiss the case on the grounds that they lack the authority to adjudicate trademark-related disputes. The paper also revealed uneven practice and inter-bench and intra-bench split in award of damages for trademark infringement. In addition, the civil remedy, specifically the monetary relief, rarely served its purposes in compensating the trademark owner owing to the difficulty of proving the defendant’s profit and absence of statutory basis and courts jurisprudence in determining the amount of royalty. Moreover, besides the non-compliance of the accused with the bail order and closure of criminal cases as result of their failure to appear before the court, criminal conviction is achieving less in deterring the infringement acts as the courts highly prefer to release those convicted of the trademark rights violation on probation
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Keywords
Infringement, Preliminary Injunction, Trademark, Likelihood of Confusion