News Item

OHIM to abolish final registration fees for CTMs

A European Commission proposal for reducing the official fees for Community Trade Marks (CTM) has been accepted. Following a late change of approach there will be a minor increase in the filing fee but the final registration fee, now aligned with the UK system, will be entirely abolished.

The Commission is expected to publish the necessary regulation at the end of April and the new fees are currently expected to come into force at the beginning of May.

Under transitional provisions, it is proposed that the abolition of the registration fee will apply to those applications still in the process of examination when the new regime comes into force, even if filed beforehand. Thus, those existing applications, which have not received a request for payment of the registration fee by the time the new fees come into force, will be exempt.

The new official fee for filing will be as follows:

€900 (electronic filing)

€1050 (paper or fax filing)

€870 (designations of CTM via International Registrations under the Madrid Protocol, however filed)

The reduction is in response to the continuing surplus at OHIM and there are plans to spend the accumulated balances on a number of cooperative projects with national offices in the EU, establishing common search databases, common practice on classifications and the like.

We expect the revised fees will bring substantial reductions in cost for all users of the CTM system that will now be even more competitive with the national systems that still exist across the EU. The GDP of the EU market is $15 Trillion and trade mark protection in all 27 countries, through the filing of a single CTM, will now be possible at greatly reduced cost.

Registered Community Designs quicker and easier to obtain

No changes are planned for Registered Community Designs fees. However, a new e-filing system for designs will come into operation in April 2009 with an immediate filing receipt, if e-filed. It is expected that a registration certificate will now be issued within 48 hours, provided that the officially recognised terms used in the Eurolocarno classification system are used to describe the design, and with easier uploading of data and design representations.

For further advice or a review of your trade mark portfolios please contact your usual Marks & Clerk attorney or a member of our trade mark team.