LATEST NEWS

China’s Anti-Monopoly enforcement agencies named July 21, 2008
Commission cracks down on collecting societies July 21, 2008
eBay not responsible for policing counterfeits, says US court July 21, 2008
European Commission’s IPR strategy focuses on SMEs July 21, 2008
Musicians welcome plan to extend copyright term in Europe July 21, 2008
Payless ordered to stop using American Eagle brand July 21, 2008
Reform dominates list of 50 most influential people July 21, 2008
Taiwan ends compulsory licensing dispute with Philips July 21, 2008

This article is FREE access as part of MIP Week, a weekly email newsletter written by the editors of Managing Intellectual Property magazine. Take a two week trial to MIP and find many more related articles.

National offices receive €1.8 million from OHIM

Emma Barraclough, London

OHIM, the Alicante-based office that handles Community trade marks and registered designs, paid EU member states a total of €1,872,850 last year, according to its latest statistics

The payments were made for what OHIM described as "services to the Community trade mark (CTM) and the registered community design (RCD)". Denmark and the UK - the top two recipients - each received more than €250,000, 10 other national offices received more than €100,000, while seven offices received smaller amounts.

The figure was included in a report on the progress of technical cooperation agreements between OHIM and member states that was presented at a meeting of the Office's Administrative Board and Budget Committee on April 21. The report is due to be published on OHIM's website next week.

OHIM has now signed technical cooperation agreements with 17 national IP offices since the first agreement was implemented in 2006.

Under the deals, OHIM pays the costs of activities in member states that are designed to promote or provide information about the CTM and RCD systems. Last year these included road shows, publications and seminars.

Although the amount paid to member states under the scheme in 2007 falls below €2,300,000 - the amount originally budgeted for in 2006 - it still is likely to fuel debates about how OHIM reduces the large budget surplus that it has amassed since the Office began granting Community trade marks in 1996.

The Office's cumulative cash reserves have now reached more than €200 million. In May last year, the EU Competitiveness Council asked the European Commission to produce a proposal for an immediate reduction of the trade mark filing fees charged by OHIM. However, that has not yet happened.

Although many users favour a reduction in fees, some national offices argue that any further reduction in OHIM's fees will make it less attractive for applicants to apply for national trade marks. Some also say that the surplus should be spent on providing more technical support to national offices, particularly in the newer EU member states.

In November last year, representatives of brand owners in Europe criticized plans to subsidize the 17 trade mark offices that carry out national searches for Community trade marks.

Search reports for CTMs used to be compulsory but become optional for applicants from March 10.

Under the EU Fee Regulation, any applicant who chooses to have search reports prepared after this date will pay €12 for each report. But national offices will be paid €16 per report, the extra €4 being paid by OHIM.

Representatives of BusinessEurope, AIM and MARQUES wrote a joint letter to OHIM's Budget and Finance Committee arguing that "there should never be cross-subsidisation from OHIM's funds to National Offices and that this appears to set a dangerous and inequitable precedent".