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Archived updates for Friday, April 15, 2005

OHIM Practice Note on Neutral Background in Design Representations

According to OHIM Examination Practice Note 1/2005:

. . . Where the Office receives a representation of a design with only some of the views being deficient due to the fact that they are not on a sufficiently neutral background, the applicant will be invited to either send in replacement views with a neutral background or to withdraw the deficient views. If the applicant complies with this invitation within the time limit of two months, the date of receipt of the new replacement views will determine the filing date.

If the applicant fails to comply with this invitation or withdraws the deficient
views, the date of receipt of the original application will be recorded as the
date of filing, but only for the non-deficient views, while the deficient views will
be ignored. The examiner will in each case make an evaluation of whether the lack of
a neutral background affects the possibility of clearly identifying the design
which is applied for. If the examiner finds that the representation is deficient,
this will influence the filing date of the application.

Therefore it is strongly advised that applicants provide the representations on a completely neutral background in every case. . . .

Click here for general information about design registrations in the European Community.

Click here for more practical aspects of design registrations in Europe.

Click here for Decisions on Invalidity concerning Community Designs.
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