Quality of opposition decisions
A panel of users participated in an audit on the quality of opposition decisions at EUIPO on 6th and 7th July 2017, as part of the Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels (SQAP) project.
SQAP aims to involved users in the quality management of the Office, and in contributing to the quality of the Office’s decisions. It is running as a pilot project during 2017.
The July audit involved 13 auditors from seven users associations, including Roland Mallinson representing MARQUES. They checked opposition decisions to assess their quality in accordance with the Office’s quality criteria. The findings were reflected in an audit report.
Importance of disclaimers in designs
The General Court addressed the importance of disclaimers in the assessment of the subject matter of designs in its decision Murphy/EUIPO – Nike Innovate (Electronic wrist band) T-16/16 on 4th July (see the blog post on Class 99 for more details).
The General Court upheld the decision of the EUIPO Board of Appeal. In an article in the July issue of Alicante News, EUIPO says the decision provides guidance on the use of disclaimers in interpreting the subject matter of protection of a design:
The case described also illustrates how important it is to pay particular attention to the representation of the design in the filing strategy as it plays an essential role in determining the subject matter of protection of design. Moreover, the representation of a design is of particular importance in design invalidity proceedings. According to the case-law, the comparison of the overall impressions produced by the designs must relate solely to the elements actually protected, without taking account of the features excluded from protection. Therefore, it is worth repeating that the representation should contain only the design for which protection is sought excluding any other matters.
Finally, it must be recalled that the usage of disclaimers (e.g. broken lines, blurring, boundaries or colour shading) to indicate what is not intended to be protected is in accordance with Common Practice (CP6). Disclaimers are also foreseen, as the GC mentioned, in the Guidelines for Examination of Registered Community Designs of the EUIPO, where it is clearly indicated that disclaimers must be apparent from the representation of the design itself, rather than be included in the description of a design.
Key User Programme
EUIPO has launched a Key User Programme offering advanced IP management solutions. The Programme began in 2013 in pilot phase and was rolled out to all users in April this year.
There are already more than 350 key users in the Programme, accounting for more than 40% of EUIPO trade mark applications.
Benefits include direct support and guidance on trade mark and design applications and access to user performance statistics. There is a dedicated team and an advanced user area, where users can benchmark against average performance.
To use the Programme, participants must hold a current account and opt in to receiving electronic communications.
See the July issue of EUIPO’s Alicante News for more information on each of these items.