From the beginning of spring, the Community Trade Mark will be only a piece of history. It will be replaced by the European Union Trade Mark. Its registration fees will be changed. Also the name of The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, will become the European Union Intellectual Property Office now. As You can see a lot of changes are coming.
Press information about upcoming changes was published on 24 December 2015. After 90 days from publishing of the Amending Regulation, it will enter into force.
1) European Union Trade Mark – it’s only a name change.
From 23 March 2016, the Community Trade Mark will automatically become the European Union trade mark, including reported trade marks which are not yet registered.
The scope of protection will stay the same as with the Community Trade Mark. Only the name will be changed.
The previous name was invoking to the European Community which existed till 30 November 2009. Then its role was taken by the European Union. We can say that the new name is adjusting trade marks to the future.
2) New fees for the European Union Trade Mark
Till now the basic fee was involving the registration within 3 commodity classes. Traditional paper form of registration cost 900 EUR and on-line form of registration cost 900 EUR.
After the upcoming changes:
– fee for the European Union Trade Mark registered in a paper form – 1000 EUR
– fee for the European Union Trade Mark registered in on-line form – 1000 EUR
– fee for the 2nd class of the European Union Trade Mark – 50 EUR
– fee for each additional class of the European Union Trade Mark – 150 EUR
The cost of trade mark renewal for the next 10 years, get clearly reduced. Till now the cost of a paper registration form was 1500 EUR and the cost of an online registration form was 1350 EUR.
After the upcoming changes:
– fee for a renewal in paper form – 1000 EUR
– fee for a renewal in on-line form – 850 EUR
– fee for a renewal of the 2nd class of European Union Trade Mark – 50 EUR
– fee for a renewal of each additional class – 150 EUR
3) The European Union Intellectual Property Office
Formally also The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) is changing its name. From March 2016 it will be known as the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). This change is quite considerable because OHIM is now the biggest decentralized agency of European Union.
Thanks to a lot of filed (and prepaid) trade marks and community designs, OHIM is completely financially self-sufficient.
Personally I am not really happy about the name change.
It’s easy to say OHIM but when it comes to EUIPO, the tongue may get seriously twisted.
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