New Community Trademark Regulation comes into force

The new Community Trademark Regulation (207/2009) came into force on April 13 2009. This new basic regulation replaces the Community Trademark Regulation (40/94) and its many subsequent amendments.

The new regulation merely codifies and renumbers Regulation 40/94. Nevertheless, this change is of great practical importance and will require considerable efforts of adaptation on the part of both the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and Community trademark (CTM) representatives.

For example, OHIM will have to change a large number of forms, notifications, standard letters and communications to comply with the new numbering. Moreover, since April 13 all briefs and communications submitted by CTM representatives have had to take the new numbering system into account. OHIM must also adapt its decisions and notices.

Importantly, the first 36 articles of Regulation 40/94 have not been renumbered, leaving the frequently cited Articles 7 and 8 (absolute and relative grounds for refusal, respectively) unchanged. However, the renumbering has affected the provisions relating to:

oppositions;
appeals;
invalidation proceedings; and
international registrations designating the European Union or based on a CTM.

An annex to Regulation 207/09 contains a correlation table setting out the number of the provisions in both regulations.

Finally, the provisions of Commission Regulation 2868/95, which implemented Regulation 40/94, have also been affected. Therefore, OHIM has posted an annotated version of the implementing regulation on its website.

Ramón Cañizares and Luis Soriano, Elzaburu, Alicante

New Community Trademark Regulation comes into force

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