09 3月 New European Trademark Regulation launches March 23rd 2016

Trademark holders should already be aware that March 23rd 2016 is the launch date for the new European Trademark Regulation. If you are a Trademark holder, and you haven’t done so already – now is the time to assess your portfolio and establish whether or not the changes will affect you in any way. Community Trademarks (CMTs) will now be referred to as European Union Trademarks(EU Trademarks) and OHIM (Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market) will now be known as the European Union Intellectual Property Office or ‘EUIPO’.

The new Regulation brings with it a reduction in fees, from March 23rd onwards; filing fees will be charged on a class by class basis, filing fees in general will be lower, EU Trademark renewal fees will be reduced too – a change worth knowing ahead of time is the fact that ‘three classes for the price of one’ fees will no longer applicable .e.g. the basic fee of 850e will now only cover one class as opposed to three; whereas Renewal fees in one class have now been lowered to 850e as opposed to 1350e

These cost reductions stand to benefit everybody, small business enterprises and Start-ups in particular.

From the 23rd of March, all CTMs (both existing and amid the application process) will experience an automatic conversion to being EU Trademarks. Read the entirety of the Regulation here for an in depth run down.