"PRACTICE CHANGE

Part B: Examination/Section 6: Search
(addition of “Four National Offices have decided to opt out of the Community Search system as from the 01 January 2009; Ireland, Portugal, Sweden and United Kingdom” etc., pg 17)

Part E, Section 3
Changes in an application or registration, Section 3, paragraph 1.1. Declaration of withdrawal (amendment following the decision of the Grand Board R 0331/2006-G Optima, pg 3)

OTHER CHANGES

Part C: Opposition/Part 1:
Procedural Matters, Section 1, paragraph 2.1. Earlier trade mark registrations or applications (addition of “The seniority claimed in a CTM can be taken into account within the meaning of Article 8 (2) (a) CTMR provided that the proprietor of the CTM has surrendered the earlier mark or allowed it to lapse within the meaning of Article 34 (2) CTMR and that this fact is proved by the opponent”, pg 15)

Part C: Opposition/Part 2:
Chapter 2: B. Similarity of Goods and Services
IV. SPECIFIC GOODS AND SERVICES COMPARED Paragraph 2. Similarity of retail services among themselves and of goods and retail services (deletion of “with or similar”, pg 48)

Part C: Opposition/Part 2:
Chapter 2: B. Similarity of Goods and Services IV. SPECIFIC GOODS AND SERVICES COMPARED Paragraph 2. Similarity of retail services among themselves and of goods and retail services (addition of ”Apart from being different in nature, given that services are intangible whereas goods are tangible, they serve different needs. Retail services, at large, consist in bringing together, and offering for sale, a wide variety of different products thus allowing consumers to conveniently satisfy different shopping needs at one stop, whereas, by definition, there are no goods serving such purpose. So, they have different nature and serve different purpose. Finally, they are neither in competition with, nor complementary to, each other”, pg 48)"