Three years ago the Commission asked the Max Planck Institute to study how the EU trade mark functions. The Institute’s report was published early last year. The Commission was expected to issue its proposals to update the Trade marks Directive and CTM Regulation in October 2011, but that timetable has now slipped.
Commission official Kerstin Jorna said earlier this year that her team was spending time on the drafting stage of the process to ensure that the final proposals are adopted quickly. But Managing IP understands that part of the delay may be due to events overtaking the drafting process. One example is the so-called IP Translator issue. The Commission’s proposals were expected to resolve questions about the way IP offices in Europe treat class headings in trade mark applications, but OHIM has since led efforts by national offices to harmonise their approaches.
Now the Max Planck Institute has published its own synopses of the Trade Mark Directive and the CTM Regulation, setting out the law and how it should be changed, clause by clause.
