Importance of the new EU Trade Marks regulation
 No 2015/2424 of the European Parliament and the Council regarding the EU trade marks...)
On 23 March 2016 Regulation (EU) No 2015/2424 of the European Parliament and the Council regarding the EU trade marks entered into force. This is part of important reform in the European Union Trade Mark Law, which is meant to continue its development and to be accomplished during the next year. The new regulation adopts the terminology of the Lisbon Treaty and one of the amendments is that the "Community trade mark" will not be called like that anymore. Instead, it will EU Trade Mark.
The Amending Regulation was published on 24 December 2015 and is part of the new European Union trade mark legislative package that also includes the replacement of the existing Trade Mark Directive, which had been meant to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks. One of the significant values of the new Regulation is Article 28, which allows for a transitional period of six months during which proprietors of EUTMs applied for before 22 June 2012 and registered in respect of the entire heading of a Nice class may declare that their intention on the date of filing had been to seek protection in respect of goods and services beyond those covered by the literal meaning of that heading.
Following feedback from its user community, the European Union Intellectual Property Office has prepared a non-exhaustive list containing examples of terms considered to be not clearly covered by the literal meaning of the respective class headings. The list is purely for the guidance of EU trade mark owners wishing to submit declarations for the purposes of Article 28(8) EUTMR.
It is planned new changes to be adopted by 1.10.2017, which will allow creation of so-called Certificate Trademarks. Also, from that date it is envisaged the elimination of the requirement for graphical representation of signs, that would be registered as an European Union Trade Mark. A change, which would be useful if we take into consideration technological developments and mediums for visualization and perception of images.
Contact our English-speaking legal experts at: info@gencs.eu to get more information regarding the EU Trade Marks and all of the conditions and news for registering.
T: +371 67 240 090
F: +371 67 240 091