Friday 3 December 2010

OHIM is becoming a ‘true IP agency’

The President of OHIM delivered a speech at the Brussels IP 2010 summit today setting out his vision of transforming OHIM into a ‘true IP agency’ and not just a registration office. It seemed that he was primarily talking about OHIM playing a more active role in the enforcement of trade mark and design rights but could there be implications for copyright? He alluded to involvement in the Commission’s Counterfeiting and Piracy Observatory, which collects data about all intellectual property infringement.

‘Community trade marks and designs are very successful,’ he said, ‘and we have built up a substantial surplus. We have an obligation, and potentially the resources, to do some things to make the whole IP system work better, and that’s what we will be looking into.’

The speech is here: http://oami.europa.eu/ows/rw/news/item1682.en.do

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