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Month: December 2015
EU Parliament addopted EU trademark reform
The European Parliament finally adopted the reform regarding the protection of Community trademarks. Some of the most important changes to the Directive on trademarks in the EU (CTMR) are:
– Changes concerning the interpretation of the Class Headings of goods and services listed in the application for trademarks;
– Reduction of fees for registration of EU marks;
– The initial fee will now cover only one class of goods and services, each subsequent will cost additional fees;
– Goods in transit through EU territory could be seized by the customs authorities even if they are not intended for EU but for third countries, as long as there are grounds for infringement of rights to trademarks used on the goods.
– Community trademarks will be called European trademarks (in this blog we have called them by this way for many years, so that become reality at the end);
– OHIM will changed its name to the “European Union Intellectual Property Office” – EUIPO.
Laos joins the Madrid system
WIPO reports about the accession of Lao to the Madrid system for international registration of trademarks. The country signed the Madrid Protocol which will enter into force 0n 07.03.2016.
More information here.
Meetme cannot be an European trademark
The European Court ruled in Case T-190/15. The case concerns an attempt for registration of the following European trademark:
Class 9: ‘Computer software and computer programs; application software for mobile phones and the Internet; Software used as an application programming interface (API) software facilitates online services for social networking, the development of social networking applications; software in the form of mobile Applications for viewing and sharing of geographic location of a user and search and find other users and websites and interact with them “;
Class 38: “Providing access to a global computer network; providing access to databases; Internet communications network; providing access to electronic databases, and online computer, telecommunication services, namely electronic transmission of data, messages and information; providing online communication forums on topics of common interest, facilitating access to third party websites via a universal login; providing discussion forums and electronic bulletin boards online, providing an online network that allows users to transfer data identity and share personal information for identification or on several websites; Providing access to computer databases in the social network “;
Class 45: ‘Personal and social services assistance to individuals intended to constitute, manage and expand their own social network. ”
OHIM refused the registration of this mark based on absolute grounds for refusal, 7 (1) b) CTMR.
According to the Office above mark is indistinctive, it is merely a promotional statement which associate with the technical means facilitating meetings between people. The presence of font and colors is not enough to create a distinctive mark and cannot make consumers to perceive it as a distinctive sign.
Welcome Design Class
OHIM launched a new classification tools Design Class which includes more than 13 000 concepts and terms related to goods regarding Locarno Classification which is necessary in case of application for industrial designs.
More information here.
Well-known trademarks in Russia
Marques Class 46 draw our attention to some changes in the procedure for declaring whether one trademark is well-known or not in Russia. According to these changes the Russian Patent Office must check and issued a decision on that matter up to 10 months after the date of the application.
More information here.
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