Starting 1 January 2024 and acting on instructions of the World Health Organization (WHO), the North Macedonian Intellectual Property Office started applying a new practice related to the registration of generic names of pharmaceutical products (International Nonproprietary Names or INNs) as trademarks.

Trademark applications for signs containing INNs filed on and after 1 January 2024 will not be registered by the IPO, either when they are combined with the manufacturer’s corporate name or with a non-distinctive, figurative element.

Applications for signs that are similar to INNs, entirely contain them or are derived from them, will also not be recognized as trademarks. The same principle will be applied to INN stems (prefixes or suffixes) that define the pharmacological group to which the INN belongs.

According to Paragraph (2) of Resolution WHA46.19 on Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances, WHO encourages the commercial use of generic names of pharmaceutical substances in their circulation, in combination with the corporate names of manufacturers, but not their registration as trademarks.

Prepared by: Emilija Doeska

For more information, please contact Emilija Doeska at our North Macedonia office.

Source: North Macedonian Intellectual Property Office