So the trilogue is agreed: the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, otherwise known as OHIM or, to the in-crowd, OAMI, is to be re-branded (on which, see last night's Katpost
here). The chosen replacement for this
sesquipedalian monstrosity (47 characters, inclusive of spaces) is to be the nearly-as-sesquipedalian European Union Intellectual Property Office (43 characters, inclusive of spaces). For those who love brevity, IP Australia takes some beating, but IP EU was never likely to be.
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The search for the Lost City of Alicante ... |
It's probably too late to persuade Europe's finest to change their minds, but this Kat is convinced that his talented readers, many of whom are deeply involved in branding and marketing issues, could have come up with something less boringly descriptive and certainly less long-winded than "European Union Intellectual Property Office". He therefore invites them to submit their improvements. This Kat also thinks that it would be fun to design a new logo to represent the deeper meaning of the European Union Intellectual Property Office, this being an IP office which (i) is by the seaside, (ii) just can't stop making money, (iii) operates in five official languages and (iv) unlike most other IP offices, has nothing to do with the oldest and most expensive IP right, the patent.
Do please send your suggested logos for the rebranded office to the IPKat at
theipkat@gmail.com, ideally as .jpg or .png documents so that he can edit them if need be, or at least in a format that doesn't send his computer into spasms or stun it into total inertia. The best entries will be posted on this weblog (so can we have an irrevocable non-exclusive licence for that purpose, please?) and a small, as yet unspecified prize will be offered for the best entry. Closing date for entries is close of play,
Sunday 3 May. It might be a pint of Badger at The Old Nick or, if it turns out to be cheaper, a flight to Alicante with Ryanair ...
EU Trade Marks and Designs Office or EU TMADO. It could be called the EU tomato or you mado!
ReplyDeleteAshley
It's gone from 15 syllables to 17 syllables, so is a lengthening of the name in terms of how long it takes to say it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the broad IP name is preparing in advance for what the EU would like to happen to the EPO.
Perhaps EUNPI (EUropen Non-Patent Office)?
ReplyDeleteBy OHIM's own rules for trademark registrations, could they even register that name? (Patents are IP too, and so is copyright*, but perhaps they don't know that)
* Was the European Commission fast asleep when the worldwide change occurred from "Industrial Property" to "Intellectual Property"? Wouldn't surprise me - and they seem still to be asleep!
The logo should be Scrooge McDuck diving into a large pile of money. I appreciate the copyright implications here, but OHIM could probably afford to buy Disney anyway.
ReplyDelete(To the tune of "Old MacDonald")
ReplyDeleteOld Campinos had some cash
E-U-I-P-O
and with that cash he changed the site
E-U-I-P-O
With a site crash here
and a site crash there
Please try Chrome
Firefox
but abandon Microsoft
Old Campinos burnt some cash
E-U-I-P-O
Old Campinos had some cash
E-U-I-P-O
and with that cash he changed the name
E-U-I-P-O
With a blue flag here
and a lightbulb there
Yellow stars
It's not far
from the current logo
Old Campinos burnt some cash
E-U-I-P-O
Old Campinos had some cash
E-U-I-P-O
and with that cash he bought some 'bots
E-U-I-P-O
With some Google here
neologisms there
Take the words
Google them
then object on shaky grounds
Let's find meanings where there's none
E-U-I-P-O
A. Campinos had some cash
E-U-I-P-O
Qualitative was ignored
E-U-I-P-O
With a target here
and a target there
Send it out
Get it out
It complies with Guidelines
There's no reasons
There's just rules
E-U...
I-P....
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo
EUAGE?
ReplyDeleteWrote H. Bosch
Perhaps in the interest of egalitarianism, instead of OHIM, we should rebrand as OHER?
ReplyDeleteOn the "s" or "z" question, the original Regulation 40/94 used "Harmonization" for the name of the office, hence OHIM used that spelling. Subsequent regulations played fast and loose with the spelling until the codified version 207/2009, to which you link, changed this to "Harmonisation."
ReplyDeleteThis explains the anomaly, but not why a "z" was used in the first place. The answer to that is beyond me! The European Commission's English Style Guide, the version of I which I have consulted admittedly post-dates the Regulation, clearly states use -is-,not -iz-.
> (i) is by the seaside
ReplyDeleteThis theme is already exploited by the Israeli IP Office.
> (ii) just can't stop making money
Isn't a gold thing in the middle of the logo a coin?
How about:-
ReplyDeleteNO Patent Office - for Designs, and European Marks - Often Suspect
acronym:- NO PODEMOS
Another record for the records: the EUIPO will be the only IP Office in the developed world that does not include granting patents among its activities.
ReplyDelete(Trying to come up with a rational explanation, I am left with the possibility that this might be the first tangible proof of tunnelling between unrelated parallel universes for what in our Universe is clearly a bad decision.Is CERN's LHC to blame?)
Anon 1704,
ReplyDeleteFor the moment? Lower the EPO's quality enough and I'm sure they will be able to take on some files.