Boards of Appeal
An article marking the 20th anniversary of Boards of Appeal decisions was published in the latest issue of EUIPO’s Alicante News newsletter.
In 1997, the year of the first decision from the Boards, there were just 20 appeals filed. In 2016, there were 2,568 decisions. Of these, 9.6% were appealed to the General Court, and the Court confirmed the Board of Appeal decision in 85.7% of cases.
Recent initiatives include the integration of quality management at the Boards and the launch of the eAppeal tool this year. Mediation was introduced in 2011.
The Boards’ next case law conference will be held in Alicante on 7 to 8 May 2018.
Legislative reform
All EUIPO website tools and services were brought into line with the entry into force of the second wave of legislative reform changes on Sunday 1 October.
Changes included the removal of the graphical representation requirement, the introduction of the EU certification mark and various procedural changes. Full information is available on EUIPO’s legislative reform information hub.
SQAP
An external audit on the quality of opposition decisions took place on 2 to 3 October 2017 – the third in a series of quarterly pilot audits this year.
MARQUES was one of eight user associations that provided a total of 14 auditors to check EUIPO opposition decisions to assess their quality in accordance with established Office quality criteria.
Members of the European Trade Mark Law and Practice and Famous and Well-Known Mark Teams took part in this audit. MARQUES also took part in a previous audit in April 2017 and plans to participate in the next round in January 2018.
Issue 083
Intangible capital – such as branding, design and technology – contributes twice as much as buildings, machinery and other forms of tangible capital to the total value of manufactured products, according to new research by WIPO
