Regulation 2015/2424 - Amendment of Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 on the EC trade mark and Commission Regulation (EC) No 2868/95 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 on the EC trade mark, and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 2869/95 on the fees payable to the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 341/21

Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94 (2), which was codified in 2009 as Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 (3), created a system of trade mark protection specific to the European Union which provided for the protection of trade marks at the level of the Union, in parallel to the protection of trade marks available at the level of the Member States according to the national trade mark systems, harmonised by Council Directive 89/104/EEC (4), which was codified as Directive 2008/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (5).

As a consequence of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the terminology of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 should be updated. This entails the replacement of ‘Community trade mark’ by ‘European Union trade mark’ (‘EU trade mark’). In order to better reflect the actual work carried out by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (trade marks and designs), its name should be replaced by ‘European Union Intellectual Property Office’ (‘the Office’).

Further to the Commission's communication of 16 July 2008 on an industrial property rights strategy for Europe, the Commission carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the overall functioning of the trade mark system in Europe as a whole, covering Union and national levels and the interrelation between the two.

In its conclusions of 25 May 2010 on the future revision of the trade mark system in the European Union, the Council called on the Commission to present proposals for the revision of Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 and Directive 2008/95/EC.

The experience acquired since the establishment of the Community trade mark system has shown that undertakings from within the Union and from third countries have accepted the system which has become a successful and viable complement and alternative to the protection of trade marks at the level of the Member States.

National trade marks continue nevertheless to be necessary for those undertakings which do not want protection of their trade marks at Union level, or which are unable to obtain Union-wide protection while national protection does not face any obstacles. It should be left to each person seeking trade mark protection to decide whether the protection is sought only as a national trade mark in one or more Member States, or only as an EU trade mark, or both.

While the evaluation of the overall functioning of the Community trade mark system confirmed that many aspects of that system, including the fundamental principles on which it is based, have stood the test of time and continue to meet business needs and expectations, the Commission concluded in its communication ‘A Single Market for Intellectual Property Rights’ of 24 May 2011 that there is a need to modernise the trade mark system in the Union by making it more effective, efficient and...