Since 1st April this year, EU businesses have been able to
protect their designs by registering them with the OHIM, based in
Alicante. A fee of €230 buys exclusive rights to use the design for
five years, renewable for up to 25 years, together with protection
throughout the EU against both deliberate and inadvertent
copying.
The new search engine will search all designs in each
fortnightly Community Designs Bulletin. The Bulletins are very long
and only available on-line, with each one covering each of the
eleven official languages of the EU.
Given that this week's Bulletin alone runs to over 1,100 pages,
the search engine is an important tool. It will enable interested
parties to search the register for details of existing
registrations, entries made after registration, and details of
renewals or information on expired registrations.
Searches can be carried out and the official OHIM Bulletins can
be downloaded from:
http://oami.eu.int/en/design/bull.htm
(Be warned: if downloading Bulletins, the PDF files are very large,
some exceeding 10 MB)
