Brussels, 27/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 27 March, the European Commission proposed to modernise the trademark registration system, which it wants to make cheaper to access, quicker and more effective in the face of counterfeiting. The objective is to “improve conditions for businesses to innovate and to benefit from more effective trademark protection against counterfeits, including fake goods in transit through the EU's territory”, the Commission states in a press release.
The proposal involves the directive approximating member states' laws on trademarks (codified in 2008), the regulation on the Community trademark (codified in 2009), and the 1995 regulation on fees payable to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), the European agency based in Alicante.
The new proposals aim to “harmonise registration procedures, including at member state level, taking the Community trademark system as a benchmark”, said European Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier in press release. The proposals also aim to strengthen legal certainty, facilitate cooperation between member states' offices and OHIM, and to strengthen the EU's means to tackling counterfeiting by allowing counterfeit goods in transit to be seized.
Review of fee structures. Another important objective is to “make the fee structures more flexible” at both EU and national levels. On this latter point of fees to be paid, the Commission proposes the principle of “one-class-per-fee”, which will be applied both to applications for the Community trademark and to applications for the national trademark. “This will enable any business - particularly SMEs - to apply for trade mark applications according to their actual business needs, at a cost that covers those individual needs only”, the Commission explains. And it adds: “Under the current system, the fee for registering a trademark allows for the registration of up to three product classes. Under the revised system, a trademark can be registered for only one product class. So at EU level, businesses will pay substantially less when they seek to obtain protection for one class of product only.”
This is a package of texts, which despite their technical nature, are politically and technically important, Barnier said. He particularly underlined the losses linked to counterfeiting - losses that represent around €200 billion.
The economic benefit generated by trademarks is considerable. On average the value of the top ten trademarks in a member state represents about 10% of GDP, Barnier pointed out. And he stated that protected high-end goods represent 48% of European exports. (SP/transl.fl)