OHIM Publishes Draft Opposition and Examination Guidelines

The EU's Office for Harmonization of the Internal Market is revising its Examination and Opposition Guidelines in response to recent changes in the Community Trademark and designs CTM Regulation brought by Council Regulation (EC) N° 422/2004 and Commission Regulations (EC) N° 1041/2005 and N° 1042/2005 available at http://oami.europa.eu/en/mark/aspects/amendfees.htm.

Comments are welcome no later than 30 September 2006 and should be sent by e-mail to vincent.oreilly@oami.europa.eu. The process of formal adoption of revisions of the guidelines will be finalised in 2007. In the meantime amendments to practice that are reflected in the documents will be applied by examiners.

Changes have been made in a number of parts of the Draft Opposition Guidelines. The revised versions are contained in six separate documents below for ease of downloading:

• procedural_matters18.07.2006.pdf
• identity18.07.2006.pdf
• global_assessment18.07.2006.pdf
• similarity_of_goods_and_services18.07.2006.pdf
• similarity_of_signs18.07.2006.pdf
• proof_of_use18.07.2006.pdf

The remaining sections of the Opposition Guidelines are not being changed.

The Draft Examination Guidelines are available at Examination24_7_2006.pdf