The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM)
administers the EU Community Trade Mark registration system,
whereby an applicant need only register his trade mark once in
order to be able to enforce it throughout the EU. OHIM has been
taking steps to ready itself for the increase in workload once the
EU enlargement process takes place.
The ten new Member States - Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia –
will not become official members of the EU until 1st May next year,
but have been granted transitional rights in respect of the
Community Trade Mark.
This means that since 1st November trade mark holders within
these new Member States have been able to oppose the granting of an
application for a Community Trade Mark where they have pre-existing
trade marks under their own national laws. This earlier right must
have been acquired in good faith.
The opposition may be lodged with OHIM within three months of
the publication of the application, but cannot be filed in respect
of applications made before 1st November.
Protection has been given to rights holders who have a
pre-existing national trade mark, but could not oppose the granting
of a Community Trade Mark because the application was made before
the transitional period. In this situation the Community Trade Mark
cannot be enforced within that new Member State, although it will
extend throughout the rest of the EU.
