Community Trade Mark Regulation

EU Trade Mark Law Reform – Final Legislative Approval Completed

Dec 17 2015

By Arthur Artinian and Scott Steinberg

Further to alert of 11 June 2015 (here) and recent webinar covering the major developments affecting international brand owners (here), the proposals to amend the Community Trade Mark Regulation and Trade Mark Directive were adopted at second reading by the European Parliament on 15 December 2015. This was the final approval required at EU level and follows the Council adopting its position at first reading on 10 November 2015.

The Regulation will to enter into force 90 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, and this is expected in February or March 2016. The Directive will enter into force 20 days after publication and must be implemented by Member States into national law within 3 years. Some provisions relating to administrative invalidity and revocation procedures may be implemented within 7 years.

New OHIM Registry Practice for Community Trade Marks

Jun 26 2015

Nice Class Headings

If your international brand portfolio includes Community trade marks (CTMs) which were filed prior to 22 June 2012, you should be carefully reviewing your portfolio in light of changes expected to come into force under the draft Community Trade Mark Regulation (Regulation), a revised draft of which was released last week.

International brand owners will be familiar with the classification system under the Nice Agreement concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services. The system consists of 34 classes of goods and 11 classes of services, explanatory notes and an alphabetical list of goods and services. The class headings provide a general indication of the fields to which the goods and services in each class belong.

European Union Trade Mark Law Reform – Revised Drafts Released

Jun 12 2015

On 8 June 2015, the Council of the European Union published the final texts of its proposal to amend the Community Trade Mark Regulation (Regulation) and Trade Mark Directive (Directive).

The revised drafts reflect the key issues which have been the subject of significant debate in the last year, including:

harmonisation of trade mark law and practice between EU member states
measures to protect brand owners’ rights with respect to counterfeit goods in transit
cooperation between Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and national trade mark offices
governance and finances of OHIM.

Tag:Community Trade Mark Regulation