The Royal Government issued on August 6 a new "Instruction on Acknowledgment of Exclusive Right in the Use of Marks." The instruction allows for exclusive importers to record a certificate of exclusive import rights with the Ministry of Commerce. The language states that importers "shall be allowed to record", not that they are required to do so. While the instruction does not specifically state the benefits to an importer of registering their rights, such a certificate should facilitate anti-counterfeiting or parallel import measures. These should be spelled out in a forthcoming Prakas (declaration).
Interestingly, the Instruction contains a non-discrimination clause, requiring all exclusive distributors to offer their goods to consumers and redistributors without discrimination. Conceivably this could prohibit a host of price-discrimination measures, from recurring-customer discounts to geographic market segmenting. Hopefully this too will be better defined in the Prakas.
For more about the Cambodian trademark system, please refer to our Guide to Trademark Law in Cambodia.