EU Trademark Reform Package

[[{"type":"media","fid":"4515","view_mode":"media_large","instance_fields":"override","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-2134 alignright","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"228","height":"152"}}]] At the 21 April 2015 the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council have reached in so-called "trilogue discussions" provisional political agreement. The pillars of the trademark reform are:

• Significant reductions of the fees for European Union trademarks covering all 28 Member States. The agreed changes will lead to savings of up to 37%, in particular for businesses that seek protection of their registered European Union trademarks beyond an initial period of 10 years;

• Streamlined, more efficient and harmonized registration procedures across all trade mark offices in the EU. Faster and less burdensome procedures will be a great improvement for successfully growing companies, mainly SMEs, which roll out their business beyond one Member State and seek trade mark protection in front of multiple national administrations;

• Strengthened means to fight against counterfeits in particular of goods in transit through the EU’s territory. This will prevent abuse of the EU as a distribution hub for illegal fake goods to world-wide destinations;

• Modernized rules and increased legal certainty by adapting trade mark rules to the modern business environment and clarifying trade mark rights and their limitations.