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Home / Refusal of trade mark application on relative grounds / trade mark / UK-IPO / Today's the day...

Today's the day...

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Today's the day that the The Trade Marks (Relative Grounds) Order 2007 enters into force. What this means is that the UK-IPO will no longer automatically block trade mark applications in relation to which there is a conflict with an earlier mark on the relative grounds. Instead, the owner of the earlier mark will be notified (if it's a UK mark) and will be given the option of launching an opposition. The change has at least two principal aims: to give a level playing field to UK applicants, since OHIM does not routinely block applications on the relative grounds ex officio, and to make the system more market orientated - only marks which are valued enough by their owners to sink money into an opposition will be allowed to block applications.

The IPKat sees the wisdom in the changes. In an ideal world relative grounds examination would continue to take place, but there seem to be sound financial/competitive reasons for stopping it. However, he's a bit concerned that the interests of consumers never seems to have got a look in. Even if a trade mark owner doedn't think it worth protecting his earlier mark, if the earlier mark remains in use, a subsequent conflicting application and mark could confuse consumers.
Today's the day... Today's the day... Reviewed by Anonymous on Monday, October 01, 2007 Rating: 5

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMonday, 1 October 2007 at 10:37:00 GMT+1

    Hurray!?

    ReplyDelete
  2. FilemotMonday, 1 October 2007 at 22:37:00 GMT+1

    In some respects its a sad day that the UK abandons the integrity of its trademark register. Congratulations are however due to UK IPO for setting up their smart opt-in form TM6 which is operating very neatly and efficiently. It doesnt look as if there has been a huge early demand as the references had only barely climbed above 100 by close at 20:00. Nevertheless we have until 20 October 2007 to fill in forms for all those who love their CTMs

    ReplyDelete

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