EU Trade Mark Reform
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Written on 03
July 2015
The European Parliament, European Council and the European
Commission on 21 April 2015 came to an agreement to reform the EU Trade
Mark Directive (2008/95/EC) and Regulation (207/2009/EC). This comes
after two years of talks, in what was called the “trilogue discussion”.
The objectives of the reform are to ensure greater consistency
between national trade mark offices, whilst also accommodating the
changes in the digitisation of the economy.
The title “Community trade mark” is set to be replaced with
“European Union trade mark” in the reform. This is not the only name
change that will be introduced.
The “Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market” is set
to be re-named as the “European Union Intellectual Property Office”.
This creatively re-named office will be the sole office of filing for
EU trade mark applications. It will also stop carying out searches for
earlier trade marks, this means that aplicants will have to rely on
their own searches.
The resistibility criteria will no longer include the
requirement of “graphic representation”, this was suggested back in
2013 in the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and
Competition Law’s report. Signs that cannot be seen will be
capable of registration as long as they are able to be represented in a
clear and precise manner.
Trade mark holders will be provided with more protection for
goods in transit. Customs enforcement will allow the trade mark
proprietor to prevent the goods from entering the EU, where a mark is
identical or indistinguishable from the trade mark. The
holder of the infringing goods will then have to prove that the EU
trade mark holder is not entitled to prevent the marketing of the goods.
The new provisions will facilitate a more streamlined process
in relation to the registration, refusals and declaration of
incompatibility procedures throughout the EU. This
update to the legal frame work of trade mark law is thought to be
capable to lead of savings of up 37%.
However we are unlikely to see savings over night. Once the
Directive is adopted EU Member States will have three years to adapt
national law so that it is in line with the new Directive.
Written by Sam O'Toole
About the Author
Lawdit
Solicitors offer services and advice for litigation,
commercial contracts, Intellectual Property and IT legal agreements. We
are experts in commercial law with a heavy emphasis on Intellectual
Property, Internet and e-commerce law. Lawdit is a member of the
International Trademark Association, the Solicitors' Association of
Higher Court Advocates and we are the appointed Solicitors to the
largest webdesign association in the world, the United Kingdom Website
Designers Association.
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Article Published/Sorted/Amended on Scopulus 2015-07-20 09:06:18 in Legal Articles
