Registrations and e-Business up
As indicated in the December edition of Alicante News, demand for the Community trade marks was adversely affected by the chaos on the international financial markets in the latter part of the year. While, the full figures for last year are still being analysed, two interesting trends are already clear. Trade mark applications were slightly down, but the number of CTMs registered rose substantially, and the proportion of customers opting to do business using our online tools went up also.

Since the CTM was introduced in 1996 registrations have risen consistently every year and 2008 was no exception. A total of 81 000 Community trade marks were registered including the symbolic 500 000 th CTM which went to the small Italian company, Handy Dandy Design. The total has now topped 507 000 CTMs – a remarkable tribute to the popularity of Community-wide IP protection.

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