On 23 November, Mozambique officially launched the newly created geographical indication (GI) Cabrito de Tete, which is the first GI registered in ARIPO (African Regional Intellectual Property Organization).

On 28 October, the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM), with the support of the EUIPO’s European cooperation projects, enhanced its back and front office applications.

The Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), with the support of the EUIPO’s European Cooperation Service, has improved the service it provides to its users with the launch of a new set of modern online features for trade mark and design applications. These digital service improvements became available on 11 November 2020.

On 28 October, the Office hosted the second online session of the 29th User Group meeting.

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) is firmly establishing its network with the signing of a new collaboration agreement with the International Network for Small and Medium Enterprises (INSME).

On 15 October the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO), with support from the EUIPO’s European cooperation projects, completed its technical stack upgrade of the designs front office system. This followed a set of improvements to the back office system on 10 October.

Experts from the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN) are meeting virtually for the 9th European Cooperation Projects (ECP) working groups.

As a result of the joint efforts of the CP11 Working Group members, MS IPOs, User Associations and non-EU IPOs, the final drafts of both work streams of the CP11: New types of marks – examination of formal requirements and grounds for refusal were approved in the Extended Working Group meetings which took place virtually on 7 and 8 September.

On 21 September 2020, the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM) successfully integrated its front office and back office systems. This will allow trade marks and designs filed in the front office to be automatically available in the back office application without any need for manual intervention.

The Greek Trademark Office (GGE), with the support of the EUIPO’s European Cooperation Projects, has implemented several functional enhancements to its Back Office tool.