Alicante, 19/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Trade Mark Office (OHIM) of Alicante has financed itself, since the beginning of its operational phase in 1996, through submission rights paid by companies, the Office's President, Wubbo de Boer, pointed out on the occasion of the visit of the Kangaroo Group to Alicante (see above). With 48,550 submissions, 50,635 requests published and 38,504 trade marks registered, the Office secured a revenue in 2001 of 110.7 million euro, for an outlay of 100.6 million euro, or an annual benefit of 10.1 million euro, said the Office's Vice-President responsible for technical and administrative issues, Alberto Casado. The cost of submitting requests is 975 euro, the cost of registration 1,100 euro and the cost of renewal after 10 years 2,500 euro, "or half as much as national offices", recalled the Vice-President responsible for legal affairs, Alexander von Muhlendahl,. A discourse clearly intended for the members of the European Parliament's Budgetary Committee, who would like to tighten parliamentary control over the annual budget of the Trade Marks Office, in the framework of the review of the Financial Regulation, sources in Alicante acknowledge. "Parliamentary control over the budget and number of positions is justified when an agency is financed by the Community budget, but that's not our case. What's more, we are anyway controlled by the Court of Auditors", remarks Alenxader von Muhlendahl.
According to Alberto Casado, "the Office will not need subsidies until 2006, when the costs of renewing trade marks will begin to come in". The Office should also be able to implement the directive on "designs and models" adopted last December from 2003. The Commission has, however, yet to set registration duties, stresses Wubbo de Boer. This registration duties for designs and models are currently 2,000 euro in the United States and 6,000 in Japan, whereas registration in the Fifteen Member States represents 16,000 euro.
Enlargement also weighs on the prospects regarding patents, risking to cause a new "Babylon", when the number of languages in which requests may be submitted will go from 11 to 19, remarks Alexander von Muhlendahl. The management of 45,000 requests for trade marks currently represents some 27.5 million euro, and the cost should reach over 50 million euro after enlargement, "or almost the double", says Alberto Casado. The Office has already managed to reduce translation costs, notably be encouraging those submitting requests to use standard formulae.