1. SME's and Trademarks
OHIM's initiatives for raising of awarenes on the importance of Trade Mark protection
Beate Schmidt – Cancellation and Litigation Department (OHIM)
Wipo – Rome, Italy, 4 October 2010

2. OHIM in Alicante
Growing importance of protection intellectual property as an valuable asset of any enterprise – more and more sme understand and value the importance of effectice IP rights to protect agains counterfeits and product piracy
The Ofice for Harmonization in the Internal market for Trademarks and designs in Alicante/ Spain tries to help as much as possible to make registration of rights for SME as easy and affordable as possible. If you take the time to have a look at our website, you will find all sort of valuable and practical information to help you with the registration of your rights

3. Intellectual Property Rights
There are a number of socalled IP rights – as OHIM is competent for Trade Marks and Designs I will concentrate on them, however when looking for protection you should not forget patents or copyrights, to name just a few more

4. Community Trade Mark

5. Community Registered Design

6. The National Route How to obtain protection
Individual applications with National PTOs
Individual fee for every National application
Translation Costs: Yes
Protection according to national law
Using the national route means
to file individual applications with a national trademark office anywhere in the world according to the national requirements –although in European Union Trade Mark Laws have been harmonized, even there still exist local differences concerning procedures and examination practice to pay a (different) fee at each Office
to get protection for one country only according to the national law
to translate the list of goods and services in the different languages and find varying application of the Nice classification rules
to pay one or more lawyer
Lawyer’s fees: ?

7. Translation Costs (EN,FR,ES)
How to obtain protection
The International Route via WIPO
A single fee to WIPO
Prior national right necessary
Individual fees to be paid to designated National Offices
A ‘bundle’ of rights’ is granted
Translation Costs (EN,FR,ES)
The international route via the Madrid agreement or the Madrid protocol means
To obtain a basic trademark in one county or in the European Union
Pay a single fee to WIPO
Designate countries – more than 1 from all over the world which are member to the Madrid system, including OHIM for the 27 members ot the European Union
Pay an additional individual fee to the designated national offices, who will start individual examination procedures acoording to their national laws
Obtain a bundle of different national rights which are subject to the national laws in the designated country
Pay probably translation costs – the languages for IR being EN, FR, ES
Pay probably lawyer‘s fees in one ore more countries, as in some countries you have to be represented by lawyers, and anyhow professional advice is recommanded
Each right subject to the national laws of the designated country
Lawyer’s fees?

8. The Community Route How to obtain protection 1 registration procedure
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Cyprus
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
The Netherlands
United Kingdom
1 registration procedure
in any of the languages of the EU
1 registration office: OHIM
1 fee (no translation costs)
1 right valid throughout 27
countries (unitary right)
1 court of law
The community route means
file one application with one single Office, the OHIM
Pay one single fee ( for the time being € 1050 € for application and registration, 150 € reduced for e-filing)
Translation in all the official languages of the EU included
Obtain one title valid throughout all the 27 member states – the CTM and RCD are unityary rights, that is they are valid in the whole territory – however, if there are obstacles for granting protection in only one part of the community, the right cannot be granted at all.
Have one way to the European Courts in Luxemburg
The Community Design: 2 ways of protection
The “Registered Community Design”
Open system
Accessible for all nationalities, sectors, companies
Easy filing (e-business)
No unnecessary formalities
Maximum 25 years protection
Cost effective
Swift grant of rights
80% of designs published in 8 weeks
The “Unregistered Community Design”
Protection acquired by use
3 years of protection
Alicante

9. Community Trade Mark

10. Size of CTM Portfolios
A CTM is not only for the big players – you can see that the majority of our clients own up to 10 trademarks – 77%. The biggest portion have 2-5 CTM - , and only 8% have more than 100 marks registered.

11. CTM
Last year we celebtrated registered trademarks – the owner of that one was a SME from Italy.

12. http://oami.europa.eu OHIM’s Website
Any information you need about OHIM and the CTM – and RCD system you can find on our webpage

14. Newsletter

15. SME and newcomers section
In order to provide better and specialised informations for SMEs and newcomers, Ohim has created a special space on its website, the SME and Necomer section.
Here you find some video interviews with representatives from SMEs who explain why they use the community system. SMEs in Action show a selection of SMEs who sucessfully use the Community trade mark and explain how they profit from the protection.

16. IP Information
There is also some information on why and how to apply for a trademark and design and some general information in the Quick Guides on IP, Design and Trademarks.

17. Hands off my my design www.handsoffmydesign.com Design Protection
 especially for young people – the designers of the future! OHIM –together with     e-Learning about European Union Design Protection:                 For the designers of the future! Here you can find e.g a IP Handbook – and a lot of links to additional information you might be interested in – and it’s also fun as there are some IP related games include!

18. Information

19. Help

20. The End