Trademarks

Cambodia’s trademark system is set forth in the Law Concerning Marks, Trade Names and Acts of Unfair Competition, which generally follows international principles and standards. Cambodia joined the Madrid System in 2015, which has become widely used for securing protection internationally.

Definition of a mark

Cambodian trademark law protects visible signs that distinguish an enterprise’s goods or services. Registrable signs include words, names, letters, numerals, logos, devices, labels, signatures, slogans, combinations of colours, shapes, three-dimensional signs and holograms, as well as a product’s appearance and packaging. By contrast, non-visible signs – such as sound, smell, gestures or motion – are excluded, and a single colour alone cannot be registered.

Application process

Applications are filed with the Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Intellectual Property Rights (D/IPR). Foreign applicants must appoint a Cambodian trademark agent; domestic applicants may file directly or through an agent. Although Cambodia is not party to the Nice or Vienna Agreements, it follows both systems in practice. 

Filing, examination and timelines

A minimum filing requires the applicant’s name and address, a specimen of the mark, the international class and clear specification of goods or services, and payment of the official fee. After filing, the filing date and application numbers are assigned. The details of the trademark application will shortly appear on the D/IPR database and via WIPO; outstanding materials may be submitted thereafter. Paris Convention priority can be claimed within six months, with particulars at filing and a certified copy upon request. Registration typically takes nine to 12 months, though longer is possible. If delay would seriously disadvantage the applicant, expedited examination may be requested with reasons. If the application is accepted, it will be published in the next official gazette and an electronic certificate issued.

Grounds for refusal

An application can be refused where a sign lacks distinctiveness; is contrary to public order, morality or good custom; misleads the public; or appropriates protected state or international emblems without authorization. It is also refused for conflicts with well-known marks, or where the mark is identical or confusingly similar to earlier Cambodian filings or registrations for the same or closely related goods or services. Provisional refusals must be answered within 60 days, extendable once; otherwise the application lapses without refund of the official fees.

Maintenance and renewal

To maintain rights, the owner must submit an endorsement of use or non-use within one year after the fifth anniversary of registration or renewal. Evidence may include product photos, sales receipts or advertising; justified non-use may still be endorsed if there is intent to use and no abandonment. Registrations last 10 years from filing and are renewable indefinitely for 10-year periods, with a six-month grace period subject to late fees. Renewal will not be granted if the endorsement of the affidavit is missing.

Opposition, invalidation, removal and cancellation

After grant, publication in the Official Gazette opens a 90-day opposition window. The applicant may file a counterstatement within 45 days, and a hearing may be requested. Invalidation may be sought at any time on the substantive grounds used for opposition. Removal is available where a mark has not been used for five consecutive years without justification. Separately, the D/IPR may cancel a registration for non-renewal, at the owner’s request, for failure to meet imposed conditions, for lack of a service address, for lack of legitimate ownership, or for similarity to a third party’s well-known mark.

Patents

Cambodia’s patent framework is built on the Law on Patents, Utility Models and Industrial Designs of 2003. Administration sits with the Department of Industrial Property under the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation. The law generally follows international principles and rules. As a member of the Patent Cooperation Treaty and having signed several bilateral agreements concerning patents, foreign applicants have multiple routes to securing protection in Cambodia.

Patentable subject matter

A patentable invention is a technological solution embodied in a product or process. Exclusions cover discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical models, business and purely mental methods, medical treatment and diagnostic methods practiced on bodies, pharmaceutical products, plants and animals other than micro-organisms, essentially biological processes and plant varieties. Computer-implemented inventions may be patentable when claimed as a computer-executed process or as a product composed of machine-readable code and suitable hardware.

Patentability standards

Three cumulative tests apply. Novelty is measured against worldwide prior art, with a 12-month grace period for certain disclosures by the applicant or those arising from abuse. Inventive step requires that the invention not be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art. Industrial applicability demands the invention can be made or used in industry and that exploitation does not violate public order, morality, health, environmental protection or other laws.

Utility models

Utility model certificates offer a quicker, narrower right: they require novelty and industrial applicability but not inventive step. The term is seven years with no possibility of renewal. Applicants may convert once between a patent application and a utility model before grant or refusal.

Filing and procedure

Applications can be filed through the Patent Office’s efiling website. Priority under the Paris Convention or the PCT may be claimed. The patent application form must be made in Khmer and be accompanied by a description of the invention, one or more claims, one or more drawings when necessary to understand the invention and an abstract, and be accompanied by payment of the official fee. Once the complete documentation has been submitted, the Patent Office will issue an acknowledgment of filing and proceed to substantive examination. Annuities are due for pending applications, as well as for registrations.

Bilateral cooperation agreements

In addition to joining the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2016, Cambodia has entered into various validation, re-registration and acceleration agreements within its main trading partners. The most commonly used option is validating a Chinese patent. The Chinese patent must have been granted and be in good order, with a filing date after January 22, 2003 (the date of signature of the Cambodian patent law). As the system is retrospective, all Chinese invention patents, so long as filed after the effective date, are eligible for validation. Similar programmes exist for Singaporean patents, and Cambodia is also a validation state of the European Patent Office. This last option is particularly cost-effective, as only the claims need to be translated into Khmer, whereas for all other paths a complete translation of the specification must be submitted. Finally, the examination of Cambodian applications can be accelerated based on U.S., South Korean and Japanese patents, each under separate bilateral agreements.

Duration, rights and limits

Patents last 20 years from filing or priority date. Annual annuities, on an escalating scale, must be paid in advance for both pending applications and granted registrations. Owners may enjoin making, importing, offering, selling, stocking or using patented products, and using patented processes and directly obtained products. Limits include exhaustion, experimental use, and prior user rights.

Copyright and related rights

Cambodia’s Law on Copyright and Related Rights secures creators’ moral and economic rights. Enacted in 2003 during WTO accession, it aligns with TRIPS and the Berne Convention, establishing international standards and national treatment for foreign works.

Scope

A protected “work” is any original expression in literary, scientific, artistic or musical form. Covered categories include literature and teaching materials, speeches and pleadings, drama and choreography, circus and pantomime, musical compositions, audiovisual creations, visual and applied art, photographs, architecture, maps and technical drawings, computer programs with documentation, and craft collages and fashion designs. Excluded from protection are official texts and their translations, court decisions and unprotectable subject matter such as ideas, methods and data.

Authorship

The named natural person is presumed the author and initial owner. When an employee creates a work in the course of employment, economic rights pass to the employer unless the contract says otherwise, while moral rights stay with the employee. In audiovisual works, presumed co-authors include the director; the authors of the scenario, adaptation and spoken text; the composer of specially created music; and, for animation, the graphic artist.

Protection and deposit of works

Copyright protection is automatic once a work is fixed, even if incomplete or undisclosed, provided it is original. Since March 2022, foreign works receive the same protection as domestic ones. Although optional, deposit with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts strengthens evidence in disputes: applicants submit the author’s name, creation and first publication dates, and a rights record and receive a certificate of registration.

Limitations

To balance access, the law permits private copying; performances within a close family circle; library preservation; noncommercial education; translations between Khmer and ethnic minority languages; analysis and short quotation with attribution; press commentary; dissemination of public speeches; caricature or parody; and incidental depiction of art situated in public places with attribution. Works based on the true life of a person or family need authorization from the person or their heirs.

Duration and transfers

Economic rights last until 50 years after the author’s death, or, for collaborations, 50 years after the last co-author dies. Anonymous or pseudonymous, collective, audiovisual and posthumous works are protected for 75 years from public availability, capped at 100 years if not made accessible within 50 years. Transfers must be in writing, and specific rights may be conveyed separately. If there is no heir or will, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts will administer the economic rights.

Related and neighbouring rights

Performers hold exclusive rights to broadcast, record, reproduce, distribute, rent and authorize broadcasts, while retaining credit and integrity rights; they cannot forbid uses where the performance is merely incidental. Their economic and moral rights last 50 years from fixation or performance. Phonogram producers control reproduction, distribution, importation and public communication of sound recordings, subject to first-sale exhaustion; protection lasts 50 years from publication or fixation. Audiovisual producers must authorize reproduction, communication, sale, exchange and lease together with embedded authors’ and performers’ rights; audiovisual works are protected for 75 years from public availability, capped at 100 years if not made accessible within 50 years. Broadcasting organizations (radio, television, cable) may fix, communicate, re-broadcast, reproduce, distribute and grant first lease of broadcasts, with protection lasting 50 years from the end of the year of broadcast.

Industrial designs

Cambodian law protects the novel visual appearance of products under the Law on Patents, Utility Models and Industrial Designs of 2003, complemented by implementing regulations from 2006 and 2021. Administration rests with the Department of Industrial Property within the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation. In 2017 Cambodia acceded to the Hague System. By number of registrations, industrial designs are the country’s second most important form of IP after trademarks, underscoring their practical role in product differentiation and market strategy.

Registrable industrial designs

Under Cambodian law, an industrial design is a visual composition – lines, colours, three-dimensional form or material – that gives a product a special appearance and can serve as a pattern for industrial or handicraft production. Because protection focuses on what is “judged by the eye,” elements perceived by touch or sound fall outside its scope. Likewise, features dictated solely by technical function, leaving no freedom for arbitrary appearance, are excluded. To qualify, a design must be new worldwide, meaning it has not been publicly disclosed before the filing or priority date. Even so, novelty survives limited disclosures: those occurring within 12 months before filing and those caused by the applicant, a predecessor or an abusive third party. Designs contrary to public order or morality cannot be registered.

Application process

Applications must be filed in Khmer and must identify the applicant and inventor, provide the design’s title and international classification, indicate the products in which the design will be used, highlight novelty and protectable points and include a short description. Drawings or photographs are required, and payment of official fees triggers issuance of an application number and filing date. Unless an employment contract states otherwise, designs created by employees belong to the employer. Applicants without residence or principal place of business in Cambodia must act through a local agent and submit a notarized power of attorney within two months of filing. As a Paris Convention and WTO member, Cambodia recognizes a six-month priority period based on an earlier application; a certified copy must be furnished within three months of the Registrar’s request, with a Khmer translation due within six months.

Examination, timing and appeals

Assuming formalities are met, processing typically takes about four to six months from filing to registration, though workload can extend timelines. Decisions to register or refuse may be appealed to the competent court within three months, ensuring judicial oversight of the Registrar’s determinations.

Rights, duration and renewal

Registration grants the exclusive right to prevent exploitation – making, selling or importing articles incorporating the design. Cambodia applies the principle of national exhaustion, so parallel imports are infringing. Protection lasts five years from the filing date and may be renewed twice, totalling 15 years. A six-month grace period after expiry is available subject to a surcharge; beyond that, the registration lapses.

Enforcement

Enforcement Agencies

Cambodia’s three IP offices each maintain a dedicated enforcement division for its area. The Department of Intellectual Property in the Ministry of Commerce oversees trademarks, acts of unfair competition and geographical indications, and offers non-binding arbitration that can provide a fast, practical way to resolve infringement disputes. The Department of Industrial Property (D/IPR) within the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation handles patents, utility models, industrial designs and plant varieties. Complementing these, the Department of Copyright and Related Rights under the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts is responsible for copyrights and related rights.

Beyond the IP offices, market oversight is reinforced by the Consumer Protection, Competition and Fraud Repression Directorate-General. This body supports fair competition and combats deceptive practices, helping to curb the circulation of infringing goods and aligning consumer protection with IP enforcement efforts across the marketplace.

At the border, enforcement shifts to the General Department of Customs and Excise of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Under the trademark and copyright laws, customs authorities administer border measures in suspected trademark or copyright infringements, including receiving right-holder applications to suspend the release of goods. To strengthen this frontline role, Cambodia launched the Intellectual Property Rights Recordation System in 2024, allowing the recording of trademarks, geographical indications and copyrights for quick access by customs officers. This streamlines risk targeting and accelerates interventions against counterfeit goods and parallel imports.

When suspected infringements rise to the level of criminal conduct, responsibility moves to the Economic Police under the Ministry of Interior, acting under prosecutorial supervision. Their mandate includes monitoring and inspecting law-enforcement activities, coordinating with competent authorities, conducting searches and investigations, collecting evidence and filing legal actions, including to protect IP rights and enforce product quality and safety laws

Finally, right holders can seek civil remedies in the courts. Injured IP owners may file claims for damages and specific relief under the Civil Code and Civil Procedure Code, and they can request provisional measures where appropriate. Proceedings begin with a statement of claims filed in the competent Cambodian court, typically determined by the defendant’s residence or location. 

Penalties and remedies

The owner of a registered trademark has the exclusive right to stop others from offering goods or services under identical or confusingly similar signs. Infringement occurs when such a sign is used without consent for identical or similar goods or services. It also covers signs mimicking registered well-known marks, including on dissimilar goods where a connection is inferred and the owner is likely harmed, and signs mimicking unregistered well-known marks on identical or similar goods. Parallel imports are barred by the principle of national exhaustion. As remedies, courts may grant injunctions, damages, and relief, and the D/IPR may mediate; settlements bind the parties, and unresolved disputes may proceed to court.

Unauthorized use of a mark or trade name can be a criminal offense. Penalties range from fines of CR1 million to CR20 million (US$250 to US$5,000) and prison terms of one to five years, doubled for repeat offenders. Unfair competition draws fines of CR5 million to CR10 million (US$1,250 to US$2,500) and imprisonment of one month to one year, doubled for recidivists. Managers and representatives may be prosecuted unless they prove knowledge or consent was absent. Courts can order destruction of infringing goods without a conviction.

Copyright owners may petition courts to prevent imminent violations or halt ongoing ones. Besides injunctions, they may recover damages, moral damages, return of equipment and materials, and disgorgement of benefits from infringement. Criminal liability also applies to certain acts, including unauthorized production and reproduction, which are punishable by six to 12 months’ imprisonment and fines of CR5 million to CR25 million (US$1,250 to US$6,200). Repeat offenders face doubled sanctions. 

Exploitation of a patented invention includes, for a product patent, making, importing, offering for sale, selling, using, and stocking the product, and for a process patent, using the process and dealing in products obtained directly by it. The owner may sue anyone who, without consent, performs these acts or makes infringement likely. Courts may issue injunctions, award damages, and grant remedies; a licensee may seek relief if the owner refuses or fails to sue. Patent infringement is punishable by fines of CR5 million to CR20 million (US$1,250 to US$5,000) or imprisonment of one to five years, or both, with doubled maxima for repeat offenses within