TRADE MARKS AND DESIGNS: THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION
This article originally appeared in the Alicante News, a newsletter edited by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and is reprinted with permission. The aim of Alicante News is to provide up-to-date information on OHIM-related matters, as well as on other general IP issues, to the users of the Community trade mark and design registration systems. The newsletter is available free of charge, to anyone who wishes to subscribe at .
Above: Wubbo de Boer, President of OHIM
Globalisation
means that companies are increasingly interested in obtaining
international protection for their intellectual property rights. This
month's Alicante News looks at how OHIM is forging closer links with
the main trade mark and design offices in the US, Japan, and China.
International
businesses naturally seek to safeguard their trade marks and designs in
the most comprehensive manner possible. This can mean dealing with a
number of different registration bodies, all of them with potentially
different approaches to this important issue.
For a number
of years OHIM has been exchanging information with the US Patent and
Trademark Office and the Japan Patent Office in order to try and
minimise these differences. Last month, the Chinese Trade Mark Office
took part as observers in the sixth annual trilateral meeting, held in
Tokyo, and an agreement was made to hold annual workshops in China, and
share information on IT and business practices.
So what is
the motivation for this type of international contact, and can it
really lead to tangible benefits for the business community? OHIM
President Wubbo de Boer believes that the major trade mark and design
offices have a duty to try to make their approaches as consistent as
possible.
"The users who come to OHIM for trade mark and
design protection in the 27 countries in the EU are people who deal
with offices all over the world. They have a right to expect that we do
not confront them with unnecessary differences in practice," says de
Boer.
In fact, many of the problems faced by the
international trade mark and design offices are similar, as are the
solutions being implemented. Processes are being simplified,
bureaucracy reduced, and there is a move towards more electronic filing
and better online information.
These similarities have led
to an agreement to draw up a list of common benchmarks so that the
performance on issues such as timescales for registration or the
introduction of teleworking, for example, can be compared.
The
harmonisation of trade mark classifications is also moving forward.
There is currently a common classification database with 7 000 terms in
it. This is only a fraction of the number needed if businesses are to
have confidence that a classification agreed with the US or Japanese
offices will be accepted by OHIM, and vice versa. Work is continuing to
expand the database by adding new terms on a monthly basis.
"We
are making progress, perhaps not as fast as some would like, but here
at OHIM we are trying to focus on the most frequently-used terms, and
also on seeing if we can expand the international acceptance of the
common list. For the moment we are three, but Australia and Canada are
also showing a lot of interest," says de Boer.
About OHIM
The OHIM is the official authority carrying out the intellectual
property rights procedures for the Community trade marks since 1996 and
for the Community registered design since 2003. These intellectual
property rights are valid in all the countries of the EU. A uniform law
applies to trade marks and designs, thereby providing strong and unique
protection throughout the European Union. The uniformity means that
formalities and management can be simplified and carried out in a
single administrative centre - the OHIM. The simplification results in
considerably reduced costs as compared with the overall costs of
national registration in all countries of the European Union. OHIM has
been an Affiliate Member of Icograda since 2003.
For any
questions or remarks relating to Community trade marks and designs, the
activities of the Office, or the contents of this article, e-mail