Brussels, 20/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has adopted the Regulation setting the fees payable to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) in Alicante for registering Community designs. The basic registration fee will be 230 euro with lower fees for any further design registered at the same time. To this must be added the cost of publication (120 euro) and the cost of renewing registration (from 90 euro after five years to 190 euro after 25 years).
The Regulation, which has been awaited for some months, will allow the office to begin registering designs from 1 April 2003 and to receive the first applications from 2 January 2003. Holders of registered designs will have the exclusive right to use the designs concerned throughout European Union territory for a period of up to 25 years. The aim of the fee is to allow the OHMI to cover the costs it incurs in setting up and managing the system, the Commission states in a press release. According to an estimate given to EUROPE in April 2002 by the Alicante Office, registration costs of 500 euro would have been closer to the real cost (see EUROPE of 23 April).
Commissioner Frits Bolkestein was pleased to state in a press release that "we have been able to set these fees at an affordable level". The registration system "will foster creativity and innovation by making it easier to protect designs throughout the Internal Market with a single application. The Regulation will also help fight counterfeiting and piracy".
EP plenary session