Community Trade Marks Office

Publication of the budgets for the Community Trade Marks Office in Alicante for 1999 (updated) and 2000 reveals a projected increase in established staff from 391 to 509, with a slight drop in non-established posts from 99 to 71. Expenditure on translation of Community trade mark applications has dropped slightly from 11 . 6m euros to 10 . 1m, and on search reports from 12 . 4m to 10 . 4m. There is a new entry for 2000: "Expenditure on litigation relating to the Community trade mark", with 289,000 euros allocated. Total budget shows a slight drop to E108m.

From the Court of Auditors’ September report on the Office (just published), it has, since 1996, received some 100,000 applications for the registration of individual trade marks, of which 93% have successfully completed the first stage of the procedure but only 59% have been forwarded for publication. The Office has made objections in 11% and has registered the marks in 24% of the applications. Because of procedural congestion (the number of registrations considerably exceeded expectations), the time between filing for registration and registration ranges between 383 and 821 days, with an average of 600 days.

In its comments on the report, the Office said that while the processing of new trade mark applications had sta-bilised, other sectors such as oppositions, cancellations and the boards of appeal had not yet reached their "cruis-ing speed". It also pointed out that until the Office enters into a stable phase of self-financing (from the year 2006, when Community trade mark renewals will begin), any notion of adjusting the level of fees would appear to be premature.

While the Trade Marks Office is now fully up and running - and filling the hearts of the Court of First Instance with apprehension at the potential flow of appeals - the Community Plant Variety Office at Angers seems much more laid back. The Court of Auditors’ report of November (published in the same issue of the OJ on 22 December) reveals that the entire permanent workforce of the Office consists of only unestablished officials, premises were still being finalised and the deadline for setting examination fees, originally set at April 1997, had been postponed to 31 December 1999.