Gelekte documenten geven inzicht in de herziening van het Europees merkenrecht

Max Planck Institute - As a follow-up contribution to the Study the Max Planck Institute has produced synopses of the Trade Mark Directive (Synopsis TMD) and the Community Trade Mark Regulation (Synopsis CTMR). These synopses of the current legal texts and the proposed amendments present the implementation of the Study proposals. They are published here for the first time. A summary of the Study with the most important results and proposals refers to amendments laid down in the synopses.

World Trademark Review - Drilling down, the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Community Trademark Regulation (207/2009) outlines five specific aims:

• adapting terminology to the Lisbon Treaty and provisions to the Common Approach on decentralised agencies;
• streamlining procedures to apply for and register a Community trademark;
• increasing legal security by clarifying provisions and removing ambiguities;
• establishing an appropriate framework for cooperation between OHIM and national offices for the promoting of convergence of practices and developing common; and
• aligning the framework to Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

De Brauw Legal Alert; Overhaul of EU Trademark System imminent: draft legislation leaked
Draft legislation by the European Commission ('Commission') concerning the European Trademark System was recently leaked. The available version of this draft legislation is unofficial and the final amendments may differ. Marques has reported on these documents, and since the potential impact is quite significant, we deem it useful to highlight a few of the expected changes.

Leeswijzer:

Community Trademarks and OHIM
Terminology
CTM filing practice
Graphical representation dropped, non-traditional trademarks welcomed
Customs procedure, shifting the burden of proof to the importer
Preventive action – labels and packaging in itself will be infringing
Bad faith
Use of class headings in older registrations
Foreign descriptive terms banned

National Law
Extension of territories where absolute grounds apply
Revocation and invalidity in administrative procedures
Third party observations allowed
Genuine use period defined