The Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee has now
approved a compromise agreement on the reform of the European trade mark system. The reform hopes to foster innovation and economic growth by making the EU registration system more accessible via lower costs and complexity, increased speed, greater predictability and legal security. It also hopes to ensure co-existence and complementarity between the Union and the national trade mark systems. Some of the key substantive changes include:
amending the absolute grounds for refusal concerning shape objections so that the qualification extends beyond shapes to “another characteristic”;
including designations of origin, geographical indications, traditional terms for wine and traditional specialities guaranteed as an absolute ground for refusal;
including bad faith as an opposition ground where the earlier trade mark is outside the Union;
qualifying that it is use of one’s own personal name or address that may be a defence to infringement; and
determining non-use as five years following the date of registration.
There are also discussions to remove the one month grace period for application fees, allowing third party observations, introducing certification trade marks and lessening the opposition period for CTM designations of IRs one month after republication. Whilst the agreement still needs to go through a number of further approval stages, it is clear that changes to the EU registration system are now very much in motion. Whether or not all of the changes make it through and will be welcomed in practice remains to be seen…
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