
As for the rest of the OHIM cash mountain, OHIM recommends keeping €50m for itself as a strategic reserve, while a further €50m has already been set aside for cooperation projects with national IP offices (on which see the OHIM Cooperation Fund, which will roar into action later this year).
Money is not everything, of course, and some of the OHIM's comments come in the form of proposed changes in the basic regulations covering the Community trade mark in the light of changes that have taken place since the previous century when the fax was king. Other proposals address OHIM governance and its relationship with national offices, and even substantive issues such as what constitutes genuine use.
Readers with a long memory may recall that the European Commission commissioned a study into the working of the European trade mark system at the request of the Council of Ministers way back in 2007. This task was entrusted to the Max Planck Institute (Munich) towards the end of last year and OHIM's Contribution is intended to assist that review.
OHIM is actually quite critical of its own governance system, since it enables representatives of national registries to influence the respective fee levels of OHIM and national offices, thereby affecting the organisation's competitiveness as well as resulting in the amassing of a huge reserve. Representation by users' groups and with greater involvement of the Commission is preferred, merging OHIM’s Administrative Board and Budget Committee.
The IPKat hopes to read this document more closely when the opportunity arises, but he's sure that many of his readers will beat him (and Merpel) to it and wil have lots of opinions of their own.
The future of trade marks in the EU: OHIM speaks
Reviewed by Jeremy
on
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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