Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market

The system of European community trademarks has clear business benefits, says Wubbo de Boer, the president of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market.

Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM)

Community Rights can be registered via the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) the OHIM website describes their work and provides advice.

You can apply for an RCD with the Intellectual Property Office, or with the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM).

However they did renounce any claim to the seat of the judicial Boards of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market via the Treaty of Nice.

To protect your design for five years in all 27 EU countries, you can apply for a registered community design at the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM).

Dutch-born Mr de Boer is president of The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs), which has been providing a single registration process for trademarks, and another for designs, since 1996.

The court upheld a ruling by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, which is responsible for trademarks in the European Union, which said the exclamation mark lacked "distinctive character", making it ineligible as a trade mark under EU law.

Subject: New premises for the OHIM At present the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) is still operating from the same temporary premises, even though its new building was opened in June 1999.

With the Treaty of Nice Luxembourg attached a declaration stating it did not claim the seat of the Boards of Appeal of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market - even if it were to become a judicial body.

In March 2009, Anheuser-Busch lost an appeal against the EU's Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) decision to reject the registration of Budweiser as an EU-wide trademark for beer for Anheuser-Busch.

They are negative for various reasons: the issue of languages – I believe that the solution proposed is much worse than the one we have in the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, which offers greater language plurality – and the issue of jurisdiction, which has already been discussed here.

In Les Éditions Albert René Sàrl v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, Orange A/S, the applicants claimed that Community Trade Mark protection for Mobilix would risk confusing consumers on the basis that the trademarks were phonetically similar.

Furthermore, I have asked the president of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, that is to say the Office in Alicante, to comment further on this new question and I can, as a result, inform the honourable Member as follows, on behalf of the Office:

Today you have told us that the Commission has no news of these three countries including Spain which, to make matters worse, is the location of the headquarters of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, having begun any procedure to create what they committed themselves to, and that they have been non-compliant since November 1996.