'Fast track' opposition procedure

The UK is planning on introducing a 'fast track' opposition procedure for trade marks.

It is designed specifically with SMEs in mind and is evidence of the UK IPO's proactive efforts to help these businesses. Their outreach programme sees them regularly at business conferences and seminars as speakers and/or exhibitors. They are also approachable (with restrictions on the advice they can give) when it comes to "DIY" applicants and a large number of UK trade mark applications are self-filed.

SMEs tend to like (in all areas of their business) - and I speak from my own experiences as a business owner here - fixed indications of costs as much as possible. I believe most can handle a scale, e.g. from £x to £y. Transparency of costs is important to them. The IPO identified that the current opposition process can be unwieldy with uncertain cost outcomes and less than predictable timelines. The 'fast track' procedure will be designed to bring more certainty to the table.

OHIM (and WIPO) also have sections for SME's (here and here), but perhaps a more extensive role in engaging with SMEs will/should/must fall more within the duties of national IPOs. It is possible to envisage a future where national applications are predominantly filed by local SMEs/start-ups with the Community Trade Mark being the preferred vehicle for larger businesses; the ONEL case may also have a bearing on this. Of course, trade mark needs are determined by the nature of the products, services and markets so this is a bit of a simplistic view meant as food for thought. Larger companies will continue to use national routes when there is a purely local trade mark need or to form a less risky basis to a Madrid application, as examples, and SMEs will have reasons for filing Community Trade Marks as they do for filing in other foreign jurisdictions.

Trade Mark Watching

A challenge faced by some SMEs - particularly those that represent themselves but includes others that show reluctance to spend the additional money - is with trade mark watching. Many of these SMEs will not have set up a watching service. Owners of UK national trade marks will receive notifications from the IPO when they search subsequent applications. These may not be as extensive as a commercial watching service, but it should catch identical and near identical marks. With an SME on a limited budget in mind, it's free. Trade mark professionals can argue that the IPO's notifications are not sufficient, but the free aspect can represent value to many SMEs and we tend to have different personal definitions of "value".

What this does overlook though is Community Trade Marks. An owner of a UK national registration - or any other national registration in an EU member state (including Ireland, Sweden and those others still with relative grounds examination) - will not get notified of any Community Trade Marks even if for an identical mark with identical goods or services. If they have no watching service set up how will they find out about such a mark? If you've ever tried downloading the CTM Bulletin, published on-line every working day, then you'll know that conducting your own checks is not particularly realistic. Identical searches can be conducted periodically but you would have to remember to do them.

Nevertheless, OHIM do conduct searches - much like the UK IPO - of their own Community Trade Mark Register only and they too send notifications to the owners of these earlier marks. I understand they are looking to abolish these (this is perhaps evidence of this), but arguably it could be better to extend them. How?

Extend them by allowing owners of national registrations to notify OHIM of their rights. There could be a mechanism within TMView for doing this (so sorry owners of Greek national registrations until your country is on board you'd be ruled out). It would not need to cost anything as it would all be done on-line. It would be just as easy for OHIM to do their checks through TMView (which I imagine could easily be specially adapted for this purpose) as it is to do them on just their own Register.

Representatives could add their clients marks to this system pro-actively, particularly when they have been unable to convince a client of the merits of a watching service. This may then still give them access to avenues of possible opposition work.

OHIM may consider this as a way of helping SMEs, start-ups and those with cost constraints. It is not something national Offices can set up so while they may take the lead in meeting and educating many SMEs in their respective countries, this sort of initiative would need to be led by OHIM.

I do not believe the searches conducted are as comprehensive as a trade mark watch performed by commercial companies and I am not suggesting they are an alternative to having a proper watch in place. However, aside from cost pressures for SMEs, IPOs are not in a position to refer trade mark owners to specialist watching companies and SMEs may be reluctant to go to companies they do not know.

I should mention that the Danish Patent and Trademark Office provides a trade mark watching service as do their Swedish counterparts (neither of which are particularly cheap, I may add) but most offices do not; the UK Office has moved away from providing non-statutory, commercial services.

In conclusion, improvements to processes that make them quicker should be welcomed (when quality does not go down), but with national and Community Trade Marks working in parallel more could be done to ensure awareness if not alignment. It could be in the remit of the Convergence programme and Cooperation Fund to undertake some work in this area. National offices should bring such agenda items to the table. It's all well and good that SME owners of UK registrations can cost-effectively and quickly oppose conflicting UK applications but helping them ensure conflicting Community Trade Mark applications do not escape their radars is something that could be better addressed by the authorities.