From 23rd March 2016, the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market(OHIM), often referred to as the CTM office, will become known as theEuropean Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

 

This in itself is purely a name change, albeit, not a very snappy one – but perhaps rather more descriptive and slightly more memorable than the previous name.

 

In line with this office name change, the Community Trade Mark (CTM) will become known as the European Union Trade Mark (EUTM).

 

To coincide with both of the above, there will be some changes made to the way in which trade marks are filed and examined. These include changes in filing fees and renewal fees as well as a change in the way that an EUTM specification will be construed. In view of the change in the construction of specifications, there will also be a grace period until 24thSeptember 2016 for trade mark proprietors to clarify the scope of existing trade mark registrations.

 

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