The Kosovo Assembly approved the new Trademark Law that entered into force on September 8th, 2011. The main changes are:
- Trademark rights are acquired through registration only.
- Trademark holders do not need to declare the use or the intent to use the mark at the time the application is filed.
- An observation can be filed within three months from the publication of the application in the Official Gazette.
- Appeals of IPO’s decisions can now be filed within 15 days of the receipt of the decision.
- An accelerated examination of a trademark application can be requested.
- The owner of a well-known trademark may not oppose an application or revoke a trademark registration unless the proprietor also owns a pending application or registration with the Kosovo IPO.
- Relative grounds for refusal: Goods and/or services will need to be similar even in case the earlier trademark has a reputation in the Republic of Kosovo and the use of the trademark without due cause would take unfair advantage of, or be detrimental to the distinctive character or reputation of the earlier trademark.
- No invitations to renew trademarks.

The Intellectual Property Office of Montenegro (IPO) informed that the Trademark Database of Montenegro became available for conducting trademark searches. It is possible to file requests before the IPO of Montenegro for conducting the official searches through national Trademark database. At this moment, the Trademark Database of Montenegro covers only those trademarks registered or applied for before the IPO of Montenegro. As the process of revalidation of Serbian trademark registrations in Montenegro has not yet been finished, the trademark searches do not cover the Serbian trademark registrations yet. Once the revalidation process is finished (deadline is December 16th, 2011), Montenegrin Trademark Database will be completed. Until then, it is recommended to conduct simultaneous searches in both Montenegro and Serbia to guarantee completeness of the results.

The new state South of Sudan that was extracted from the main land of the Republic of Sudan has been announced on July 9th, 2011. Since there are no IP Laws in the new state, the Sudanese Laws will be applicable until the issuance of their own law. Any registrations at the Sudan office will be valid at the new state and enforceable as well until further notice.