That OHIM rebrand: can you help?

Lousy name. Does anyone know why they spell
"harmonisation" with a "z" when the text
of the CTM Regulation
 spells it with an "s"?
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.

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 ...
That OHIM rebrand: can you help? That OHIM rebrand: can you help? Reviewed by Jeremy on Wednesday, April 22, 2015 Rating: 5

12 comments:

  1. EU Trade Marks and Designs Office or EU TMADO. It could be called the EU tomato or you mado!

    Ashley

    ReplyDelete
  2. 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.

    Perhaps the broad IP name is preparing in advance for what the EU would like to happen to the EPO.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perhaps EUNPI (EUropen Non-Patent Office)?

    By 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!

    ReplyDelete
  4. 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
  5. (To the tune of "Old MacDonald")


    Old 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

    ReplyDelete
  6. Perhaps in the interest of egalitarianism, instead of OHIM, we should rebrand as OHER?

    ReplyDelete
  7. On 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."

    This 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-.

    ReplyDelete
  8. > (i) is by the seaside

    This 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?

    ReplyDelete
  9. How about:-

    NO Patent Office - for Designs, and European Marks - Often Suspect

    acronym:- NO PODEMOS

    ReplyDelete
  10. 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.
    (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?)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anon 1704,
    For the moment? Lower the EPO's quality enough and I'm sure they will be able to take on some files.

    ReplyDelete

All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.

It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.

Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html

Powered by Blogger.