The body that assesses and grants Community trademarks (CTMs) has said it will only examine new applications after they have been paid for.
The move by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), announced today (October 27), has been carried out in order to increase efficiency, according to the office.
In a statement, OHIM said that historically 4% of CTM applications it receives are examined but not paid for, and that the figure is increasing.
“That means we lose time and we lose efficiency,” it said.
“By linking the examination of an application to its payment, we will be making sure that files that are paid for are treated in a timely manner and we will avoid examining files that will never be paid for.”
In addition, OHIM has announced that it will be introducing a free ‘fast track’ option for trademark applications that gives applicants the option to have them published in half the time or less compared to regular applications.
Under the fast track option, users will have to select the goods and services from a database of terms already accepted by OHIM and most EU IP offices.
The changes will come into effect on November 24.