An apostille is a certificate that has the role of authenticating official seals, stamps and signatures on documents issued by a public authority such as court orders, birth certificates and any other type of public documents issued to be used in another country.
Appostilles are used and recognized in countries that are part of the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization of Foreign Public Documents, or the Apostille Convention, drafted in 1961 by the International Hague Conference on Private International Law.
Outside the Convention
For countries that are not part of the Convention, such a document needs to be certified by the foreign ministry of the issuing country and by the foreign ministry of the receiving country in order to have legal effect.
Example:
A document issued by Canada which has to be used in a foreign country needs to be certified by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs or by a Canadian consular official and by the foreign minister or consulate of the receiving country.
Apostilles – form and elements
The apostille has the form of a 15cms square piece of paper permanently glued to the authenticated document. An embossing mechanism is used to emboss the government crest on the document. This mechanism is called apostille seal or stamp.
The elements of an apostille certificate are:
Attestation or apostille
Attestation is another term used for apostilles. Attestation represents the confirmation of a document correctness and it usually refers to the witnessing of an action or event. In this sense an apostille certificate has the value of an official confirmation that the seal, stamp or signature on the document is genuine. Taking also into consideration that the legalization of a document is often referred to as attestation, it is easy to understand why sometimes the two terms are used as synonyms.
Sometimes the document authenticated by the apostille certificate can also be a document that has been by itself witnessed or certified to be correct.
U.S. Trademark
Trademarks can be colours, sounds, scents, words, names, symbols, slogans, tag lines, characters, designs, product configuration or trade dress. Among the main issues taking into consideration in registering and protecting a trademark are distinctiveness from other trademarks and secondary meaning.
UK Company Formation
More and more entrepreneurs are choosing these days to incorporate their businesses in UK, as opposite to any other country in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Why Register a Trademark?
Trademark is important for the identification of a product or a service in order to distinguish it from other products and services of a competing business. Using the trademark can enhance the credibility of the company, which contributes to the consolidation of the company’s position on the market.
