Problems with the OHIM database: prioritising the solutions

The IPKat's friend, fellow blogger and IP practitioner Barbara Cookson has prepared the following memorandum which does not seek to carp about the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) but rather to pinpoint specific issues involving the functionality of its relaunched website -- issues which not just Barbara but many others have encountered. She has asked the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA) if it can use its good offices to help OHIM in the ordering of its priorities.  This Kat wonders whether there are other issues that readers would like to raise, as well as problems with the website's functionality and even fixes or ways of resolving difficulties encountered so far. Anyway, Barbara's list looks like this:

Issues with OHIM database

It was disappointing to see that the promised list of remaining snags that OHIM promised to publish on 10 January failed to materialise

Priority 1

Communications cannot be sent reliably except by fax. 

Communications cannot be sent at all in respect of cancellations. This is a serious downgrade as proof of use is very difficult to fax and sending duplicate colour printouts expensive and time-consuming particularly when the original documents are available electronically. 

The communication appears to be sent and the only clue that there has been a problem is a little red exclamation mark in the sent tab

Priority 2

The tutorials at http://oami.europa.eu/knowledge/course/view.php?id=1657 all seem to be silent if they are available at all. Monday 13^th at 09:40 page was not there. 

Alerts – newly set up alerts seem to be triggered by historic changes of ownership and representation rather than new events only. 

Neither the alert email or the Alert Inbox allow access to eSearch and the trademark record. There is no way to act on the alert or find out more information without conducting a fresh search. In the previous implementation access to CTM-Online was provided by the email. 

Download button produces only an empty Zip file. 

PDF display “Don’t show this message again” on Correspondence is always displayed. 

eSearch Print button functionality fails to Adobe PDf printer (but do print to paper printers) 

%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%% 

X36D4CB59 not found, using Courier. 

XCBA36FA6 not found, using Courier. 

%%[ Error: invalidfont; OffendingCommand: xshow ]%% 

Stack:

[68 31 61 68 68 62 31 55 31 62 55 56 31 68 55 62 37 31 68 0]

Drafts are unavailable. 

Advertisement show in a pop-up  which makes printing difficult. 

In some old cases all you get is ‘this publication is available on paper’ 

For recent publications where the Mark is an image, the link to the representation in the advertisement reports an error even though the image file is correctly displayed in esearch. 

The time to log in (20Seconds at best to several minutes)  and switch between options in the User Area  (7 seconds at best – 15 -35s) and move to eSearch( 7 seconds) is unacceptably high.  The requirement to keep logging in again and to remain logged in to do useful work is frustrating.

Priority 3

Esearch layout changes last only as long as a login rather than being remembered. 

Opening new tab warning’s Do not show the message again tick box does not work. 

The links to online forms and other widgets in the user area are only visible when the dashboard option is active and given the time to switch back and forth the between options in the dashboard area this can be frustrating. 

When following the link to “renew a community trademark online” you go to a form which asks what type of action you want to do. Having repeated the request to renew. You are then asked what you want to renew, which makes following the link a rather redundant process in terms of usability. The other way into this online form via eSearch is probably not yet been discovered by the majority of users. 

Just before Christmas 23 December they responded to most error reporting emails demanding that we make expensive phone calls to Spain.

The launch of the new website on 2 December 2013 was accompanied by various technical problems that have led to a huge increase in phone calls and emails. While phone calls are attended in a timely and efficient manner, we are sorry for not being able to answer the emails relating to the new website in the same way.

With the recent repairs performed, the main issues raised should be solved. You can find information on the progress we are making to fix the technical problems at the following address: https://oami.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/news-and-events.

Should your query not be solved yet or should you still need our support regarding the new website, we invite you to contact us by phone from 8:30 to 18:30. We are confident that by treating this issue by phone rather than by email we will be able to tackle directly the issue with you and take steps to resolve the matter efficiently.

We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and remain at your disposal.