The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trademarks and Designs) in Alicante, Spain (“OHIMâ€), which is responsible for the registration of European Community Trademarks will reduce its official fees. This was recently decided in a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EU Member States in Brussels.
The decrease of the official fees will strengthen Europe as a business location. This will be a benefit for all who want to register their trademarks (or designs) throughout the entire European Community and not only via national registrations. The European Community Trademark System is a success story of success with 77.500 applications in 2006. This has exceeded all expectations and caused an immense amount income for the OHIM which is now being passed back to businesses.
Only recently, the official fees for maintaining trademark protection were lowered. In addition, the protection of registered European Community trademarks was expanded without any additional costs into the new member states when the number of member states increased. This makes protection of a trademark for the member states of the EU via the European Community Trademark System extremely interesting for investors from outside the EU.