“Think Small First”: a "Small Business Act" for Europe is the catchy short title for a 21-page document, the Communication From the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, adopted by the Commission this Wednesday.Right: not everyone in OHIM is excited about it becoming more accessible. This design for the new OHIM Building was favoured by some of the office's less extrovert staff members
It says, at page 13:
"the Commission will make the Community Trade Mark system more accessible, in particular by significantly reducing Community Trade Mark fees as part of a comprehensive solution to the financial perspectives of the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM)".Good news, says the IPKat. We've been lobbying for the fee reduction for a long time. Good news, says Merpel: making the system more accessible presumably means shifting OHIM from Alicante to a place that has a realistic selection of business flights.
The full version of the Small Business Act (82 pages) can be found here
OHIM fees: time for a price reduction?
Reviewed by Jeremy
on
Friday, June 27, 2008
Rating:
Reviewed by Jeremy
on
Friday, June 27, 2008
Rating:
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The gigantic budget surplus would help the OHIM's ambitions to manage the community patent as well. It has enough money to finance the Alicante model of the commmunity patent. I wonder if the Germans will give way.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me while I fall off my chair. OHIM in charge of the Community Patent? Even less likely than Spanish becoming an official EPO language.
ReplyDeleteOf course OHIM cannot take over the patent granting procedure from the EPO.
ReplyDeleteHowever some people in Spain have expressed the wish for OHIM to take over new administrative tasks related to the community patent, like managing the community patent registry.
Well, I can't say I'm too happy about these fee reductions. We are talking about monopolizing a term for an entire continent. There are barely any white spots left on the trademark map.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, if you had a pub in Brighton then you expected to be the only pub of that name in Brighton. These days, you expect to be the only establishment of this name in Great Britain. Not too far in the future you will demand a monopoly on your bar's name for the entire continent. And you will get it at a discount.
Not a bright future in my eyes.
Best, Jan-Peter
Jan-Peter
ReplyDeleteThe UK Trade Mark registry has a particular practice in relation to the registrability of pub names. The Registry refers to Dunkling and Wright's “Dictionary of Pub Names” to see whether the name is common. Interesting to know what practice is like elsewhere.
Simon