New schedule of fees in Samoa from 1 January 2017

Article  \  11 Nov 2016

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Labour has introduced a new schedule of fees that will apply from 1 January 2017.

The new fee schedule introduces for the first time the fees for the new intellectual property rights, Geographical Indications, Plant Breeder’s Rights, and Layout Designs, that were first introduced in the Samoan Intellectual Property Act 2011.

The new fee schedule sees some small increases in official fees across all official fees. One significant difference is that trade mark owners will be asked to cover the costs of publishing their trade marks in Samoa for opposition purposes. It is not clear how these costs will be passed on to trade mark owners at this stage.