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28 July 2020Trademarks

The Dominican Republic and Saint Kitts and Nevis join TMclass

The National Industrial Property Office of the Dominican Republic (ONAPI) and the IP Office of Saint Kitts and Nevis (IPOSKN) have joined  TMclass, from yesterday, July 27.

TMclass is an international tool administered by the  European Union IP Network (EUIPN) that enables a user to search for and classify the terms for goods and services needed to apply for trademark protection. It also offers translation in 44 languages along with a verification service.

ONAPI will use and accept the list of terms from a harmonised database of goods and services in TMclass. IPOSKN will join with a list of common terms, alternating between the database and WIPO’s  Madrid System, which enables rights owners to file international trademarks and covers countries which represent more than 80% of global trade.

Following ONAPI’s decision to use the database, there are now 10 non-EU IP offices using TMclass, while the total number of participating national and regional IP offices have reached 80.

According to the  European Union IP Office (EUIPO), the adoption of the database by the Dominican Republic and St Kitts and Nevis is the  result of the EUIPO’s collaboration with the  Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM), a subgroup of the  Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, which is a base for economic dialogue between the EU and the Caribbean countries.

In November 2019, the two bodies launched the  CARIFORUM IP and Innovation Project, an international cooperation project funded by the EU, co-funded and implemented by the EUIPO. The project was devised to create stronger IP offices and to make doing business between the EU and the CARIFORUM region easier. You can find out more at www.tmdn.org and  http://euipo.europa.eu/ec2

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