The House of Representatives passed a draft law “On accession of the Republic of Belarus to the Singapore Treaty on the Law of trademarks (STLT)” on 15 November, 2012.

The treaty was signed in Singapore in 2006. The number of countries acceding to STLT is constantly growing. Now 29 countries are signatories to the treaty. In particular, they are Australia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Mali, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, France, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Poland, Sweden, United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Kazakhstan and others. The Singapore Treaty defines the procedures of trademark registration and licensing agreements. STLT is intended to simplify these procedures and to harmonize the legislation of the states-parties to the treaty in this area.

When introducing the bill, Ms Zinaida Mandrovskaya, the deputy chairperson of the permanent commission for labor and social affairs of the House of Representatives, said that the accession of Belarus to the Singapore Treaty will ensure the expansion of the legal framework of the country in the Customs Union and in the area of intellectual property, will eliminate different approaches to the registration of trademarks and licensing agreements, and harmonize them with the legislation in force in the WTO member states.