At a very interesting Round Table organized in Alicante by the European Communities Trade Mark Association (“ECTA”) to exchange views on the OHIM’s examination policy in relation to GIs and which was attended by a couple of MARQUES members, a representative of OHIM’s Legal Practice Service informed that the OHIM Manual is currently under revision and discussion as regards collective CTMs and GIs as relative grounds for refusal.

Also, as regards the general feeling expressed during the discussion after the Round Table that observations of producer associations appear to never be taken into account, OHIM informed that its statistics as of 2006 until now show that about 40% of the third parties observations filed related to PDOs/PGIs and that in 2009-2011, roughly 50% of the third parties observations related to PDOs/PGIs and geographical names would have led to the reopening of the examination.

The full report of the Round Table is available for ECTA members on the ECTA website.