Disputes regarding Community designs

Disputes regarding Community designs

Unlike trademarks, where disputes can arise before registration of the trade mark, designs can only be challenged once registered. This challenge is called — in legal jargon — an application for a declaration of invalidity. The following explains the invalidity procedure from the point of view of both the invalidity applicant and the RCD owner. How […]

IP executive week

IP executive week

The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) has committed in its Strategic Plan for the years 2011-2015 to engage in innovative learning and cooperation activities, both on a European and International level. Following the success of last year’s event, held in the OHIM premises in July 2013 and in the context of collaborating […]

EPO President's mandate extended by three years

EPO President’s mandate extended by three years

The Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation, in its meeting in The Hague on 25/26 June, extended the mandate of the President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Benoît Battistelli, by a further three years, to 30 June 2018. At the meeting, the Council expressed its continued support for the EPO’s quality/efficiency strategy adopted […]

EPO will recruit 200 engineers and scientists in 2014

EPO will recruit 200 engineers and scientists in 2014

Vacancies for engineers and scientists The EPO is currently recruiting patent examiners to work in Munich, The Hague and Berlin. Who can apply? Engineers and scientists with sufficient language skills. Please see our required profile section for details. The job involves searching in online databases, analysing documents, communicating orally and in writing with patent applicants and their attorneys, and […]

Misleading invoices for trademarks and industrial designs

Misleading invoices for trademarks and industrial designs

Users are receiving an increasing amount of unsolicited mail from companies requesting payment for trademark and design services such as publication, registration or entry in business directories. A list of the firms or registers that users have complained of as having sent misleading invoices is published on the website of the Office for Harmonization in […]

Intellectual property teaching kit

Intellectual property teaching kit

OHIM and the EPO are pleased to publish the first part of their IP Teaching Kit online. It has been developed for university teachers whose students have little or no knowledge of intellectual property, and aims to give a basic yet comprehensive introduction to different IP rights, and the concept of IP as a whole. […]

Annual meeting on co-operation with EPO member states

Annual meeting on co-operation with EPO member states

The EPO and the national patent offices of the EPO member states including its extension states met in Crete on 12/13 June to discuss how to advance co-operation in order to improve the quality and efficiency of the European patent system, and thus better serve inventors and industry. The 8th annual meeting on co-operation was […]

European Inventor Award 2014

European Inventor Award 2014

The EPO presented the European Inventor Award 2014, yesterday in Berlin to outstanding inventors or teams, honouring their contribution to social, economic and technological progress. The award ceremony, held at the former Kaiserliches Telegrafenamt (Imperial Telegraph Office) in Germany’s capital, was attended by some 500 guests from the fields of business, science, culture and politics, including German Federal […]

A prize for The European Observatory on Infringements of IP rights

A prize for The European Observatory on Infringements of IP rights

The European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights of OHIM has been presented with the International Public Body Award in the prestigious Global Anti-Counterfeiting Awards, sponsored by Reconnaissance International’s Authentication News™ and the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG). The winners of the sixteenth annual awards were announced in Paris on World Anti-Counterfeiting Day at the […]

International IP Enforcement Summit 2014

International IP Enforcement Summit 2014

London, 11th and 12th June 2014 The first International IP Enforcement Summit of its kind brings together key European and international decision makers, enforcement agencies, multinational companies and other stakeholders to discuss the growing impact of intellectual property right infringements and the challenges facing enforcement and society. With a view to increasing the engagement between […]

European Patent Office and SIPO launch first Global Dossier service

European Patent Office and SIPO launch first Global Dossier service

The European Patent Office (EPO) and the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) today announced the launch of a new EPO service, called the Global Dossier, that displays European and Chinese dossier content on a family of patent applications (applications for the same invention filed at multiple offices). “The launch […]

 Greece is on the Watch List in 2014

Greece is on the Watch List in 2014

The US recognizes the positive development for Greece in trademark protection and the new trademark law which initiated the Illegal Trade Coordination Center (SYKAP). The efforts of the national police, customs, and financial police are also noticeable; they have made investigations and confiscations of counterfeit and pirated goods. The US acknowledges also the role of […]

Finland is on the Watch List in 2014

Finland is on the Watch List in 2014

The United States shows concern regarding the lack of product patent protection for certain pharmaceutical products. As per the Special 301 Report:” U.S. industry also has expressed concern that the regulatory framework in Finland regarding process patents filed before 1995, and pending in 1996, denies adequate protection to many of the top-selling U.S. pharmaceutical products […]

Positive development for the European Union

Positive development for the European Union

The 2014 Special 301 Report presents the good example of the EU for positive development in IP protection. The proposal of the European Commission in 2013 for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protection of Undisclosed Know-How and Business Information (Trade Secrets) Against Their Unlawful Acquisition, Use and Disclosure […]

The Value of IP rights

The Value of IP rights

A major research study commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office has found that companies with trade marks are more productive, innovative and show higher employment and turnover than those without. There is a common assumption in innovation policy circles that firms in high cost production locations that do not innovate will lose market share […]