The European Union Intellectual Property Office is the EU agency in charge of making effective the registration of community trade marks as well as community designs. Its name changed last 23rd of March, when it was called European Union Intellectual Property Office.
25 may 2016
The European Union Intellectual Property Office is the EU agency in charge of making effective the registration of community trade marks as well as community designs. Its name changed last 23rd of March, when it was called European Union Intellectual Property Office instead of Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market.
Community trade marks and community designs give its owner an special unitary right (belonging or related to unity) with full validity in any of the member states of the European Union through a same procedure. The headquarters of this body in the Spanish State is located in Alicante. Its president since October 2012 and for a period of five years, is Antonio Campinos. The Office for Harmonization in in the Internal Market goes back to the beginning of its activity in 1994, when it was created. According to official information in 2005 its headquarter in Alicante already hired more than 700 public servants from different nationalities of the European Union.
23rd of March 2016, according to the Regulation (EU) 2015/2424 of European Parliament and Council, this body change its name to European Union Intellectual Property Office, although we don’t know yet its acronym.
Functions carry out by European Union Intellectual Property Office
The work this organisation carries out is to encouranging and managing European Union trade marks, apart from community designs registered in the territory. The body carries out EU industrial property titles registration procedures and maintain public records of these titles. Moreover, it shares with the courts of member states the task of making a judgement about invalidation requests of these registered titles.
The Office is a public establishment that has legal, administrative and financial independence. The Office was created under European Union right and it is an EU agency with its own legal personality. Its activities are subject to EU legislation. The Court of Justice of the European Union is responsible of supervising the decisions taken by the Office direction. The European Union Intellectual Property Office is in charge of balancing the budgets items of its incomes, which derive from the registration fee that is needed for the renovation of brand protection.
