Marques 2013: OHIM and EPO set to publish economic study

A detailed study on the link between IP and European gross domestic product (GDP) and jobs will be published on September 30, the Marques annual conference in Monte Carlo was told.

Antonio Campinos, president of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), revealed the news in a series of updates during the final day’s opening session.

OHIM will publish the report with the European Patent Office to show how much industries relying on patents, trademarks and designs contribute to the EU economy.

Such a study in the EU has never been done publicly before.

“This is important,” Campinos said, “as IP has been challenged. IP is not something we can discuss in these closed rooms. We need to bring the facts and numbers … we need a rational debate. We need objective reports.”

Campinos has long called for a detailed look at the effect of IP intensive industries on the EU economy, regularly citing the success of similar research at the US Patent and Trademark Office.

That report, which was published last year, found that IP industries directly or indirectly account for more than 40 million US jobs and about 35 percent of annual GDP.

A second study by OHIM will be published in October or November this year, Campinos added.

The “global survey on what people think they know about IP” will help OHIM to understand “what they think about counterfeiting and piracy”.

“This is a very important survey, as we will have a complete idea of citizens’ perceptions of IP. We will have a baseline scenario. It will allow us to re-do the survey in a few years and see if our work has moved the perceptions to a more positive stance.

“With the two studies together, we can launch a new IP narrative,” Campinos said.

News of the studies came at the end of his update in Monte Carlo.

Campinos earlier claimed that in the past three years “we have evolved from a pure registry office to something else, and I would qualify that something else first as playing a central role in harmonisation in Europe.

“And second, the protection of trademark doesn’t end at the registration – the right granted is enforced and the enforcement is the measure of the value of the registration.”

This was a reference to the EU Observatory, which is managed by OHIM and provides a platform to share best practices dealing with infringement.

Demand for Community trademarks (CTMs) and registered Community designs (RCDs) was discussed next, with Campinos noting that OHIM has now received more than one million CTM and 700,000 RCD applications in total.

Nowadays, he said, 98 percent of CTM filings, 80 percent of RCD registrations and 60 percent of oppositions are made online.

“We are very much an online organisation,” he claimed.

Despite a rising demand for OHIM’s services, Campinos said the organisation has maintained high levels of quality. In 2009, more than 60 percent of CTMs were registered and published within 45 days, but now the equivalent figure is 90 percent within 10 days.

“We have dealt with backlogs in cancellations and oppositions,” he added, “but much remains to be done.

“Quality is not just about timeliness, but also about well-examined, consistent and predictable decisions. We are looking at all these issues together. If you want consistent decisions, the first thing you need is clear guidelines for examiners that are built in a clear way, and that is what we have been doing. We have been reviewing them, also to include the most recent court cases, and in 2015 we hope to have a set of clearer guidelines.”

“Consistency and predictability have been noted by users as areas in which we can improve, and new guidelines will help that.

“We have evolved towards harmonisation and convergence, and we are committed to a high quality service.”