Brussels, 20/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Presidency of the Council of the EU is hoping to reach an agreement on the legislative package for the Community mark during a trialogue meeting on Tuesday 21 April (see EUROPE 11226).
The Presidency put forward several compromise proposals on the final points that needed to be settled. With regard to the OHIM budget surplus, it is proposing to use it for cooperation projects with member states, as well as for compensation to be paid to these states, “for the role they play in ensuring the smooth functioning of the EU trademark system”. On this last point, the European Commission still wants its initial proposal to be taken into account: this means using the budget to pay for the European School in Alicante, the Spanish city where the OHIM is based.
On the issue of governance for the Office for Harmonisation of the Internal Market (OHIM), the Presidency is proposing to introduce a representative from each member state onto the management board. One will also come from the European Parliament and another from the European Commission. With regard to the harmonisation of procedures planned in the legislative proposal, this will follow the Italian Presidency proposal to introduce a seven-year transition period. According to a Council source, it is particularly because of the high costs that this harmonisation could generate for certain member states that has encouraged them to fight for a longer transition period. The question of the way in which goods will be treated, such as medicines that are suspected of infringing European or national laws on trade marks, is not expected to be raised because it has already been settled by the Italian Presidency (see EUROPE 11127). (Jean Comte)