The cost of community trade marks (CTMs) will fall from
€1,650 to €1,000, according to the Office for Harmonisation in the
Internal Market (OHIM), the body reponsible for the marks. The plan
is the result of a meeting of the body's administrative board and
budget committee.
"As regards to the proposed fee reduction a new very straight
forward proposal emerged during discussions, which would not only
substantially reduce the fees, but simplify the fee structure and
result in a significant reduction of administrative burden in
relation to the handling of fees," said an OHIM statement. "This
would consist of concentrating the impact of the fee reduction on
the current registration fee, and bringing the combined value of
the application and registration fees down to around €1,000."
Currently, applicants for CTMs pay €900 application fee and a
€750 registration fee, with an extra €100 charge for filings not
conducted electronically.
Even less of that money will actually go to OHIM, though,
because the body has proposed sending half of the money to national
trade mark registration bodies. It said that the criteria which
would govern how much went to which nations were not yet decided,
but that they would be framed to ensure that every member state
receives a minimum payment.
"The transfer of 50% of renewal fees should be done in a way
that would ensure that the funds would be available to the Member
States’ National Offices and would be used for the purposes closely
related to the protection, promotion and/or enforcement/combat
counterfeiting of trade marks," said the statement.
OHIM will also create a cooperation fund for these purposes
until the 50% allocation is in place. That fund will receive
€50m.
A significant proportion of the surplus will be put into OHIM's
reserve fund. It said that "the vast majority" of countries had
backed its proposal to put €190m into that fund.
Trade mark law expert Lee Curtis of Pinsent Masons, the law firm
behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that the moves were to be welcomed.
"The Community Trade Marks Office has been a tremendous success
since it was created in 1996 and the large financial surpluses that
the office has accumulated are a testament to the popularity of the
system amongst brand owners," he said. "It is great that some of
these surpluses are now being returned to brand owners in the form
of the lowering of the costs of registering Community Trade Marks,
making it all the more easier from businesses to protect their
hard-won goodwill."
Curtis said that the CTM system worked very well in protecting
economically vital assets.
"'Trade marks often form one of the most valuable assets of a
business; afterall what is more important to a business than its
good name?" he said. "One of the most effective ways to protect
such an asset is to register it as a trade mark and the Community
Trade Marks system is one of the most effective registration
systems in the world, providing protection for a trade mark
across all twenty seven member states of the EU."
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