Kazakhstan

As Kazakhstan’s package of intellectual property amendments, signed in November 2025 and brought into implementation from January 2026, begins to take practical effect, one of the most consequential changes for brand owners has moved from policy headline to usable procedure: within a trademark system where ordinary examination still typically takes around seven months, the accelerated route compresses the full review cycle to roughly three months. For businesses assessing how and when to enter Central Asia, that is not merely an administrative improvement. It changes the sequencing of...

A Kazakhstan dispute between “The Economist” and “The Ecolomist” offers an unusual, but hardly risk-free, example of an international brand succeeding without a registered mark in the target country. “The Ecolomist” was registered in June 2024 for Classes 16, 35 and 41, after which The Economist Newspaper Limited challenged the registration. Although its international registrations did not extend to Kazakhstan and the mark had not been formally recognised there as well known, the authorities and courts gave weight to local consumer awareness, similarity between the signs and the risk of...