With effect from 24 November 2014, OHIM will offer a new fast track option to applicants to have their Community Trademark Applications (CTMs) examined and published much quicker than standard applications (this is expected to be in half the time or less).
Although the fast track option is free of charge, the CTM application must meet 14 conditions to be eligible for this accelerated procedure. We can advise you on these in detail, but the key requirement that we expect to have the most impact upon whether or not this route is selected by applicants is this:
All of the terms used in the specification of goods and services must be selected from a database of terms accepted by the CTM office.
The CTM office describes this policy as an advantage of the new fast track procedure since it “greatly reduces any deficiencies” in the application, thereby avoiding any delays during the examination stage. In practice, it enables the Office to process applications more quickly since all of the terms have been pre-approved and pre-translated.
Clearly, this new fast track route will be very attractive to many applicants, particularly those with straight forward specification requirements. However, on balance, it should also be noted that not all applicants’ commercial activities can be easily characterised using the (sometimes) limited terms that have been pre-approved by the Office. In these cases, such applicants require bespoke specifications to be drafted in order to best determine and cover the scope of their registered trademark needs. In these cases, a standard application may still be a preferable route long-term.
For further advice, contact our Trademark team.
