Trademark guides for Iraq
Step by step: search, filing, publication, opposition and renewal, in Baghdad and Kurdistan.
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Guidance for investors on doing business in Iraq — with your IP protected from day one.
Read the guide→Notes from practice
Short, practical notes from our files in Iraq — anonymised, with no names or file numbers. Open any note to read it in full.
November 2026
Reclassifying an old Baghdad mark at renewal? The new goods list has a ceiling.
Older Baghdad registrations were granted under lettered sub-classes. At renewal the owner selects specific goods, and in October 2026 we repeated one rule to several colleagues: the goods selected for reclassification must…
Read the note →Your client wants proof that the mark is registered in Iraq, and the certificate is not in hand. What can you actually get?
In Baghdad: an official letter issued by the Iraqi Trademark Registrar, a Trademark Status Certificate, confirming that the mark is registered and protected in Iraq for a period of ten years. In one October 2026 file we offered…
Read the note →The Registry could not find the file, so the renewal could not be filed.
In October, for one long-standing Baghdad registration, we had to tell a foreign colleague that the renewal application could not be filed because the trademark file had not yet been located at the Iraqi Trademark Office.
Read the note →October 2026
A foreign ministry would not legalise a POA because of our letterhead. The fix was a single sentence of confirmation.
In October, a foreign colleague told us that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in their country could not accept a Power of Attorney with our firm's letterhead appearing at the bottom of the document. They asked us to confirm…
Read the note →One refreshed logo, four Iraqi applications.
In October 2026 an agent acting for a drinks brand owner sent us four separate filing instructions on the same day, all for the same two classes. Each one began with the same line: instructions for the filing of one application…
Read the note →A foreign agent asked us in October whether anything had changed in Iraq, since they had understood that patent applications were only examined as to form.
Our answer: patent applications in Iraq undergo a thorough substantive examination, not merely a formal one, carried out by a panel of specialised university professors selected by field of expertise.
Read the note →A late Kurdistan renewal does not move your next deadline.
In our 2026 Kurdistan files, the renewal confirmations say the mark was renewed "for another 10 years as of due date for renewal", not from the day the renewal was actually filed.
Read the note →“Please send us an image of the mark.” For some old Iraqi registrations, that is the first reply to a renewal instruction.
In one renewal file this October, the reason was that the mark had never been published, so there was no published print on our side to take the image from. We asked the instructing agent for an image so that we could proceed…
Read the note →20 a day. That is now the cap on search applications through the Iraqi Trademark Office's electronic system.
Until 21 October 2026, the office allowed a maximum of 40 examination (search) applications to be submitted daily through its electronic system. On 22 October the limit was reduced to 20.
Read the note →Can a "factory" own a trademark in Iraq? One court case turns on exactly that.
In one opposition-related court case, the court cancelled the registration. The mark was registered in the name of a "factory", and a factory in itself is neither a natural person nor a legal entity capable of owning a trademark…
Read the note →A certificate can carry a class you never filed for, and it may no longer be correctable.
In one of our files, a mark was filed in a single sub-class. At publication stage in 2022, the mark appeared in additional sub-classes of a second class, and the registration fees demanded covered them too. The mismatch was…
Read the note →Does a power of attorney for Iraq have to be bilingual? Not always.
In late October a client from a Gulf country explained that POAs in their country are drafted only in Arabic, are not issued in a bilingual format, and can be granted only to natural persons, not to companies or legal entities.
Read the note →Filing your own application to back up an opposition can leave you with a refusal instead.
In one Kurdistan Region file, an opposition against a third-party mark was accompanied by the owner's own applications for the name of a children's character. The applications were meant to support the opposition.
Read the note →One mark, three classes, three search applications.
In late October we filed preliminary examination (search) applications at the Iraqi Trademark Office in Baghdad for a mark covering three classes. That meant three separate applications, one per class, not one combined filing.
Read the note →Iraqi patent refused? You have 30 days, and the clock may already be running before the decision reaches you.
In one patent file this October, the route after rejection was an appeal to the Minister of Planning within 30 days, followed, if necessary, by an appeal before the Administrative Court.
Read the note →The Baghdad e-filing system will reject a goods item if the wording differs from the official list, even when the official wording itself contains spelling mistakes.
The electronic system at the Iraqi Trademark Office only accepts goods whose descriptions match the official classification exactly, spelling and grammar errors included. Goods written in free text are therefore a problem.
Read the note →Filing an industrial design in Iraq starts the clock. It does not finish the job.
In one design file this October, the application was filed and the outstanding requirements came with a hard deadline: six months from the filing date, with no possibility of extension. Among them:
Read the note →Is there a separate availability inquiry at the Iraqi Trademark Office? A foreign agent asked us in September 2026.
They had noticed what looked like a new service at the Trademark Office for inquiring about the availability of a mark, and asked us about it. A fair question, and one worth answering clearly.
Read the note →Your assignment deed is legalised and ready. The Baghdad filing can still be stuck on a goods list.
In our files, for older Iraqi marks registered under the old sub-classification system, an assignment application cannot be filed until the owner supplies the list of goods covered by the mark. That list is needed to convert the…
Read the note →September 2026
Due date and end of grace period are two different dates. Read one as the other, and a live mark can look dead, or a late one can look safe.
In one 2026 renewal file, the mark had fallen due in September 2026. In our files, a renewal filed after the due date can still go ahead within a six-month grace period, with a late-payment fine. So that mark was still valid and…
Read the note →“Is the POA valid?” is really two questions, and they are easy to mix up.
The first: is it properly legalised, with the legalisation dates in order? The second: what does it actually authorise?
Read the note →Renewing a trademark in Iraq months early did not cost us a single day of protection.
In January 2026 we renewed marks at the Iraqi Trademark Office whose renewal due dates fell in April and August 2026. The confirmations were clear: each mark was renewed for an additional ten years, effective from its renewal due…
Read the note →"We sent the renewal instructions in June." The Iraqi side never received them.
In one 2026 renewal, the instructing agent said it had sent its instructions in June, and its IT team confirmed the email left its office. The Iraqi office had never received it, and no follow-up or reminder arrived either, not…
Read the note →Sometimes a refusal is solved by one letter, not a long argument.
In one Baghdad file, a short alphanumeric mark was refused at the preliminary examination (search) stage in November 2025 because of its similarity with an earlier mark.
Read the note →Two linked marks, two different assignees? In one file, the Registrar's legal adviser said no.
In one assignment file, we filed an application to change the owner's name, followed by the assignment, with the Iraqi Trademark Registrar on 1 March 2026.
Read the note →PCT national phase in Iraq: the six months for the remaining documents may now be the whole runway.
In a March 2026 file, we told a foreign colleague that extension applications had currently been cancelled and that it had become mandatory to complete the documents within the six-month period.
Read the note →Brand and flavour in English, with the same flavour in Arabic underneath? At the Iraqi Trademark Office, expect the Arabic flavour word to go.
In March 2026, one rule was applied across a series of flavour-variant labels in our files: it is the Iraqi Trademark Office's established practice not to accept a mark that combines a foreign word with its direct Arabic…
Read the note →Can a filed trademark application in Baghdad be corrected? Not even by the Trademark Office's own staff.
In one February 2026 file, a food-class application was filed without one item that was in the instructions: the same wording sat under two item numbers, so one item was entered twice and the other dropped out.
Read the note →Not every typo in a power of attorney means re-legalising it. Knowing which ones matter saves weeks.
Between December 2025 and January 2026, foreign agents asked us about several small discrepancies in POAs and owner documents. Our advice in those files:
Read the note →Your opponent has taken your first-instance win to the Court of Cassation. What should you file in response? In our file, nothing.
In one file, the foreign agent asked for the other side's appeal memorandum, the impact if it succeeds, and a forecast of the outcome.
Read the note →Instruct an Iraqi filing in late December and it may only move in late January.
Last winter's files show why:
Read the note →Trademark filed on 13 January? Its renewal deadline falls on 12 January, not 13 January.
A foreign colleague recently asked us why an Iraqi registration publication showed two dates one day apart. The answer is worth knowing if you renew trademarks in Iraq.
Read the note →Same country, two renewal clocks.
If you docket every Iraqi renewal under one rule, you will get one of the two offices wrong.
Read the note →Seven years or ten? If your docket still says seven for Iraqi industrial designs, it needs updating.
In July 2025 we explained to a foreign colleague that the amended Law on Patents and Industrial Designs, dated 26 April 2004, changed Article 41, which governs the duration of protection for industrial designs. The protection…
Read the note →August 2026
"We have used this POA before." In July 2025 that was not enough.
In one file, a cancellation was filed to clear the way for a new application. The existing power of attorney had been used to cancel several other trademarks, without any objection, so it was expected to be sufficient.
Read the note →Your Iraqi application is still pending and no certificate has been issued. Can you renew it? It depends on one fact: has the mark been published?
In July 2025 we explained to an agent:
Read the note →Change the Arabic spelling of your mark early. In Baghdad, the window closes once the search stage is over.
As we advised in February 2025, the trademark application at the Iraqi Trademark Office is not subject to modification, while the search application can be amended. That difference between the stages decides whether a change is…
Read the note →Who is allowed to pay the final fees on a Kurdistan renewal? According to one notice we issued in 2025, any third party.
In a Kurdistan Region file, the renewal and a change of the owner's address were filed together. Once the renewal was published in the Official Gazette, our publication notice said it plainly: the final registration fees may be…
Read the note →A power of attorney for Iraq is simple to prepare and costly to redo.
In recent files, foreign agents did not draft the POA themselves. They sent the applicant's details and asked us to prepare it. In one of them, a check of the draft caught a missing digit in the year before anyone signed.
Read the note →A late trademark renewal is not priced the same way in Baghdad and Kurdistan.
A note from a 2026 renewal file, worth knowing if you budget an Iraqi portfolio: in the Kurdistan Region the late-renewal penalty includes the publication fees as well. In Baghdad, the late penalty applies only to the renewal…
Read the note →A trademark can look renewed in Iraq and still be at risk of cancellation.
The reason is the certificate issuance fee, the final registration fee. In the past, the Registrar did not require it at renewal. Since 2018 it does, and if the fee was never paid it is collected with the renewal.
Read the note →When your brand is a cartoon character, build the court case around the character, not the word.
In one cancellation suit before the Iraqi courts, the claim rested on a well-known cartoon character. Three moments in the file show why the framing matters.
Read the note →A wrong class in a trademark filing cannot always be patched after filing, and in our files Baghdad and Kurdistan dealt with it differently.
In one 2025 file, a wrong class came to light after the Baghdad application had been filed. As we advised the agent, sub-classes can currently no longer be added to a filed application. The correct class had to go in as a new…
Read the note →A deed of assignment without the parties' addresses may not be accepted in Baghdad.
In one recordal file, a foreign agent asked us to check whether documents for an assignment and a change of name were acceptable. The affidavit of change of name was very clear and sufficient for use here. The deed of assignment…
Read the note →A registered mark cannot always be amended, and the reason can catch owners out.
In one of our files, an application filed in 2017, the owner wanted to amend a registered trademark in Iraq. The Registrar first approved the filing of the amendment application, then withdrew that approval because the…
Read the note →The infringer calls to say "everything has been removed." Is that the end of the file?
In one enforcement file this year, a fast-food outlet was using a well-known cartoon character on its food boxes and in its social media promotion. After our warning letter was delivered, the owner contacted us to say he had…
Read the note →In a Kurdistan opposition, the registrations you have to hand may be the wrong evidence.
In one 2025 opposition in the Kurdistan Region, the certificates first supplied for the opponent's marks were in two other classes. Our guidance to the agent was precise: what is required are certificates for the opponent's…
Read the note →In our files, a change of address in Baghdad was published only once. Getting it to the gazette was the hard part.
From one portfolio of change-of-address recordals at the Iraqi Trademark Office, filed in late 2024: the recordal was published one time in the Official Gazette, and the recordal certificate could be paid after a one-month…
Read the note →Missed one item on a reclassification list in Baghdad? It stays missed.
In one 2026 file, we checked goods that the agent later asked about and confirmed they had not been included in the reclassification application already submitted to the Iraqi Trademark Office. They could not be added: as we…
Read the note →July 2026
Your 30-day appeal window may already be a week old when the court decision reaches you.
In one 2026 court appeal against a provisional refusal by the Iraqi Trademark Office, the three-expert panel reported against our client's position. At that point the owner could ask the court to appoint a larger, five-expert…
Read the note →Two renewal certificates for one mark. Both valid.
In one Kurdistan renewal portfolio this year, a foreign colleague asked why each renewed mark came back with two certificates, and which one was the correct one. Our answer: the Trademarks Registrar in the Kurdistan Region…
Read the note →Your search cites an older application in someone else's name. Before planning a court cancellation, check whether that file is even complete.
In 2025 we explained to agents how this often plays out. When the examiner finds an older application filed by another applicant, the Office's usual step, as we described it, is a warning letter asking that applicant to re-file…
Read the note →One sentence in your first instruction decides whether an Iraqi trademark application is split by class.
In our practice with associate offices, the choice between one multi-class application and a separate application for each class is normally specified in the initial instructions, so it is recorded in our file and taken into…
Read the note →In Iraq, a cease-and-desist letter is not filed with a notary or any government authority.
In our practice, the letter is drafted as if it comes directly from the owner of the infringed trademark. Our lawyer signs it as the owner's legal representative.
Read the note →A default judgment in your favour does not start the cassation clock.
In our files, a judgment issued in Iraq in the defendant's absence (غيابي) cannot be challenged in cassation until the other party has been formally served with the decision.
Read the note →Recording a licence in Baghdad after a change of name? The order of steps decides your timeline.
In a 2025 file, we set out the sequence for an owner that had changed its name. Licence applications cannot be filed before the name-change applications are submitted and published in the Official Gazette. And name-change…
Read the note →Paying an Iraqi patent annuity? Quote the registration number, not the application number.
In a 2024 annuity file, our office confirmed in writing that when the annuity is paid in Iraq, the registration number must be mentioned instead of the application number. The instructing annuity provider also asked for the…
Read the note →In Kurdistan, renewing a mark can mean saying goodbye to its original certificate.
The Trademark Registrar in the Kurdistan Region follows a practice that matters at renewal: the original registration certificate must be returned upon renewal, and once returned, the Registrar keeps it.
Read the note →An undertaking can promise to name the supplier and still never deliver the name.
In one 2026 anti-counterfeiting file, the infringer signed an undertaking that included a pledge to disclose the source or supply chain of the counterfeit goods. For the brand owner, that was the key point of interest.
Read the note →"If we lose in court, will the owner of the cited mark see the judgment?" A foreign agent asked us exactly this, on behalf of its client.
In a 2025 file, the Registrar refused a Latin mark filed with its Arabic transliteration, and the refusal was challenged in court. As a new expert panel was about to be appointed, the agent wanted to know who would see what.
Read the note →