Once a trademark application is filed, it is examined as to its registrability, feasibility and existence of prior rights. Trademark applications accepted by the Registrar are published in the Official Gazette. There is a no opposition procedure in Djibouti at the Trademark Registry. Any opposition will have to be filed at the local competent courts which can rule on the cancellation of a registration or on ownership of a trademark.

A trademark registration is valid for 10 years from the date of filing the application or from the priority date renewable for periods of 10 years each. The owner of a lapsed mark due to non-renewal has the exclusive right to re-file the same trademark within one year from the expiry date. Any other interested party may file the same trademark after the expiry of another year. 

The assignment of a trademark can be recorded, once it is registered. Changes in the name or address of a registrant, amendment of a trademark and limitation of goods covered by a registration should be recorded as well. Use of marks in Djibouti is compulsory for filing applications or necessary for maintaining mark registrations in force.

Unauthorized use of a trademark registered under the law, or an imitation of such trademark applied on goods and services of the same class, or sale, storing for the purpose of sale, or exhibiting for sale of goods and services bearing a counterfeited mark, or using a mark duly registered under the law by another person to serve the purpose of unauthorized promotion of goods and services of the same class are offenses penalized under the Djiboutian law.