Searching before you file matters more in Sri Lanka than in a system where a bad application simply gets refused. Here a defective or contested filing can cost you your date — a formal defect moves the date of receipt, and the whole system is built on who filed first.
Quick reference
| Right to search | Any person may examine the Register of Marks |
| Certified extracts | Available on payment of the prescribed fee |
| What the register records | The mark, number, owner, address for service, dates of application and registration, priority, class and specification |
| Also recorded | The agent’s name and address, the Gazette reference, and changes of owner name or address |
| Published | All registered marks are published in the Gazette, in order of registration |
| Covered by a search | Registrations, and applications once published |
| Not covered | Unregistered use, trade names, well-known marks, recently lapsed marks |
The right to search
Section 115 is short: any person may examine the register and may obtain certified extracts from it on payment of the prescribed fee.
The register itself records, for each mark, a representation of it, the number, the name and address of the registered owner, a postal address for service in Sri Lanka where the owner is resident abroad, the dates of application and of registration, any priority validly claimed with the number, date and country of the earlier application, the contents of any exhibition certificate, and the list of goods and services with the class.
The Regulations add the name and address of any duly appointed agent, the Gazette reference for publication, and any change in the owner’s name or address.
Separately, all registered marks are published in the Gazette in the order of their registration, and accepted applications are published before the opposition window opens.
What a register search tells you
The things a search is genuinely good for in Sri Lanka:
Earlier filings and registrations, which are the section 104(1)(a) ground — a mark resembling, in a way likely to mislead, a mark already validly filed or registered by a third party for identical or similar goods.
The owner, and whether the owner is local. A foreign owner’s address for service is on the register, which tells you something about how the mark is being used and who to approach for consent.
The dates. Because the term runs from the date of receipt of the application, the register shows you how much life a blocking registration has left and when its renewal window opens.
Recorded interests. Assignments and licence contracts are recorded, and recorded assignees, licensees and sub-licensees have to be joined to nullity or removal proceedings. If you are planning an attack, this is how you find out who the parties are.
What a search will not show you
Four categories, and they cover most of the real risk.
Earlier unregistered use. Section 104(1)(b) makes a mark inadmissible where it resembles an unregistered mark used earlier in Sri Lanka by a third party for identical or similar goods, if the applicant is aware, or could not have been unaware, of that use. None of that is on the register.
Trade names. Section 104(1)(c) does the same for a trade name already used in Sri Lanka, on the same knowledge condition. Trade names are protected under Part VI without any registration.
Well-known marks. A mark well known in Sri Lanka blocks a later application for identical or similar goods without any Sri Lankan registration at all. Sri Lanka publishes no list of well-known marks; status is established case by case on the statutory criteria. See well-known trademarks in Sri Lanka.
Recently lapsed marks. This one is specific to Sri Lanka and a search of current registrations will miss it entirely. Section 103(1)(k) makes a mark inadmissible where it resembles, in a way likely to mislead, a mark, collective mark or certification mark whose registration expired and was not renewed during the two years preceding the application — or whose renunciation, removal or nullity was recorded during those two years.
So spotting a competitor’s lapse and filing immediately runs into a two-year quarantine. A search has to look at what has come off the register as well as what is on it.
The knowledge grounds cut both ways
Sections 104(1)(b) and (c) turn on what the applicant knew or could not have been unaware of. That shapes clearance work in a way a pure register search does not.
If you have had any dealings in the market — a distributor, a terminated agent, a joint venture discussion, a supplier — the counterparty’s use is use you will have difficulty claiming ignorance of. Clearance for a Sri Lankan filing should therefore include an honest internal check of who the business has dealt with locally, not only a search of the register.
The same provision is a route for you where the roles are reversed, and section 104(1)(f) deals specifically with the mark filed by an agent or representative of the foreign owner without authorisation.
Reading the result
A clear search is the absence of one kind of obstacle, not permission to proceed. Where something is found, the questions are:
- Is it in use? A registration unused for five consecutive years is open to removal — but in Court, and remember that use of one item in a class saves the whole class. See nullity and removal.
- Will consent work? Section 104(3) requires the Director-General to have regard to the fact that the third party has consented, for grounds (a) to (e).
- Is the specification really overlapping? The test is resemblance in a way likely to mislead the public for identical or similar goods, not mechanical similarity.
- Is it associated? Marks entered as associated move only as a whole, which affects any approach to buy or take an assignment of one of them.
Before filing
Three things worth doing in this order, because the filing date is fragile:
- Search the register, including marks removed or lapsed in the last two years.
- Check your own history in the market against the knowledge grounds.
- Get the formalities right, because a defect rectified later resets your date of receipt. See filing a trademark in Sri Lanka.
Frequently asked questions
Can anyone search the Sri Lankan trademark register? Yes. Section 115 allows any person to examine the register and obtain certified extracts on payment of the prescribed fee.
Does a clear search mean I am safe to use the mark? No. Unregistered use, trade names, well-known marks and marks that lapsed within the last two years can all block an application and none of them appears as a current registration.
Why do recently lapsed marks matter? Because a mark resembling one whose registration expired, was renounced, removed or declared null within the preceding two years is inadmissible. A lapse is not an immediate opportunity.
Will a search show me who holds a licence? Recorded licence contracts and assignments appear on the register, which also tells you who must be joined to any nullity or removal proceedings.
What if the blocking mark is not being used? Removal for non-use requires five consecutive years immediately before the application and is a matter for the Court, and use of one item in a class saves all the goods in that class.
Does my own history in Sri Lanka matter to clearance? Yes. Two inadmissibility grounds turn on whether the applicant was aware, or could not have been unaware, of earlier unregistered use of a mark or trade name.
Useful official resources
- National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka — the register and the Gazette
- Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003 — sections 103, 104, 113, 114, 115
- Intellectual Property Regulations No. 01 of 2006 — regulation 23
See our related notes on filing a trademark in Sri Lanka, marks that cannot be registered and well-known trademarks.
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