Borislav Boyanov & Co. received the M&A Law Firm of the Year Award by the 2011 Finance Monthly Law Awards magazine. The Firm is also the only Bulgarian law firm shortlisted by Finance Monthly Law Awards 2011.

The Finance Monthly Law Awards 2011 is about the excellence in the profession across private practice, the public sector, commerce, industry, and the Bar. The Awards recognise firms that have dedicated their resources to innovation, built on their depth of expertise and performed outstandingly over the year. It is unquestionably one of the most distinguished law awards events of the year for the legal profession.

Borislav Boyanov & Co. has been shortlisted for the ‘Law Firm of the Year: Eastern Europe and The Balkans’ category in The Lawyer European Awards 2011. The winners will be announced at a gala dinner in Geneva on 28^th September.

The Lawyer European Awards gather Europe’s finest lawyers to celebrate the most outstanding work in the industry over the last 12 months. A panel of judges, including well travelled managing partners at private practice firms and in-house counsel at multinational companies will aid the selection process, which guarantees a fair playing field for all firms.

Borislav Boyanov & Co. has been announced as the best M&A Law Firm for 2010 in Bulgaria by ACQ Magazine. More than 30,000 readers of the ACQ Magazine were asked to nominate and vote in the fourth annual Law Awards.

The Law Awards highlight the top firms in nearly 60 countries that help the business to embrace challenging deals and come out on top. Over the last years ACQ’s readers have been rewarding law firms across the globe for the quality of their work over a wide spectrum of specialisations.

Borislav Boyanov & Co. was also elected as the M&A Law firm for 2009 in Bulgaria.

Borislav Boyanov & Co. received a silver award, second to Salans, in the Best Central & Eastern European Law Firms 2011 category during the Awards Ceremony of the International Legal Alliance Summit & Awards on 23rd June 2011 in Paris. The Firm was elected as a Silver Award Winner among a fierce competition from 15 law firms shortlisted from 22 jurisdictions of Central and Eastern Europe.

On June 17, 2011, following receipt of the relevant competition and regulatory clearances, Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. (”AIB”) sold its entire stake of 49.99% in the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank (“BACB”) to CSIF AD.

Borislav Boyanov & Co. acted as counsel to the seller, AIB, on all aspects of the transaction.

As part of the deal (subject to the positive vote of the other shareholders of the bank), the share capital of BACB will be raised by BGN 50 million to support the bank.

Pursuant to the amendments of the Bulgarian Marks and Geographical Indications Act (MGIA) in force as of 10 March 2011, the old trademark registration procedure has been replaced by the so-called opposition system corresponding to the practice of OHIM.

According to the new system, after filing a trademark application, the Bulgarian Patent Office (BPO) ex officio carries out an examination as to substance on absolute grounds of refusal only. If the application does not contradict to the absolute grounds, it shall be published in the Official Bulletin of the Patent Office.

Within three months after the publication of the application, oppositions based on relative grounds could be filed by certain persons specified in the law upon payment of opposition fee. With this regard Regulation on Drafting, Filing and Examination of Oppositions according to MGIA, promulgated in State Gazette No. 43/ 7 June 2011, is already in force since 11 June 2011.

The Regulation is adopted pursuant to Art. 38d (11) of MGIA and governs in details the general requirements for filing an opposition and the opposition procedure.

The oppositions are filed before the new Oppositions Department of the Patent Office. Each opposition is examined by Board of Examiners presided by State Examiner.

The decisions of the Oppositions Department can be appealed before the Disputes Department of the Patent Office within three months from the date of receipt. The decisions of the Disputes Department can be further appealed before the court.

The new Regulation applies to trademark applications that are filed or published after 10 March 2011.

The Privatisation Agency has revealed the names of the 10 companies that bought tender documentation by the set deadline, 9th June, for participation in the tender for the sale of 5 881 380 shares. The shares represent 79,83% of the capital of Bulgartabac – Holding AD, Sofia.

The tender documentation was bought by the following companies:

1. Philip Morris Bulgaria EOOD

2. British American Tobacco Ltd, London

3. Japan Tobacco International S.A., Switzerland

4. BT Invest GmbH, Austria

5. CB Family Office Service GmbH, Austria

6. Science Capital Management LLC, U.S.A.

7. КТ&G Corporation, Korea

8. King’s Tobacco EAD, Plovdiv

9. Kambourov & Partners Law Firm

10. Djingov, Gouginski, Kyutchukov & Velichkov Law Firm.

The above companies have to submit their documentation for admission to the tender by 4th July 2011. The binding bids are to be submitted by 3pm on 29th August 2011.

As a member of Citigroup Global Markets Limited team, Borislav Boyanov & Co. advises the Government on all legal matters of the privatization of Bulgartabac – Holding AD, Sofia.

By a judgment of 7 June 2011 the Administrative Court – Sofia ruled in favour of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), represented by Borislav Boyanov & Co. and rejected the appeal of the Bulgarian company Nova Trade EOOD against the decision of the Bulgarian Patent Office (BPO) not to grant the application for registration of the trademark “Cola Cola Derby” for goods of class 32 of Madrid’s Classification. The court made a detailed analysis of the applied for mark and compared it with the earlier marks of TCCC to reach the well-founded and legally grounded conclusion that there is a high similarity both visual and phonetic between the applied for mark and the earlier registered marks of TCCC and that since the goods of the compared marks are similar, the likelihood of confusion of consumers is very high. In addition the judge mentioned that the latter high probability of confusion is even bigger because the earlier marks of TCCC are so exceptionally popular in Bulgaria. Thus, the court confirmed the conclusion of the BPO that on the grounds of Art.12, para 1, item 2 of the Marks Act, the application of Nova Trade EOOD is to be rejected. The judgment is subject to appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court.

Borislav Boyanov & Co.’s team was led by partner Kina Chuturkova and associate Georgitsa Petkova in the proceedings.