On 2, 21 and 22 October 2020, the EUIPO welcomes users to their second audit on the quality of EUIPO design invalidity decisions (out of the fifteen SQAP audits have taken place so far).

The Executive Director of the EUIPO, Christian Archambeau, held a virtual meeting with the European Data Protection Supervisor, Mr. Wojciech Wiewiórowski on 19 October 2020.

The EUIPO Customer Panel on the new Key User Programme met today, 19 October, for the last of a series of two online workshops dedicated to EUIPO’s support services to customers.

The EUIPO guidelines, which were adopted by the Executive Director on 12 December 2019 (Decision No EX-19-4) and have been in force since 1 February 2020, are now available in 23 official languages of the European Union. They can be consulted online here.

Users are warned to be especially alert due to a new misleading invoice in circulation, which takes the form of a fake EUTM renewal invoice.

The EUIPO and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), have signed an agreement that brings together innovation and intellectual property for the benefit of European small and medium size enterprises (SME).

The EUIPO and the European Federation of Accountants and Auditors for small and medium-sized enterprises (EFAA), have signed an agreement of collaboration to provide support to SMEs

The aim of Alicante News is to provide up-to-date information on EUIPO-related matters, as well as on other general IP issues, to the users of the EU trade mark and design registration systems.

On 1 October, in accordance with Decision No EX-20-06, the EUIPO is launching the ‘AG2Review’ initiative to enhance quality and consistency in absolute grounds examination. AG2Review is a peer-to-peer review of the Office’s AG objection letters before their notification to the trade mark applicant. Letters that have been peer reviewed are easily identifiable by the presence of the AG2Review stamp and the reviewer’s name. However, the responsibility for objecting to a trade mark remains exclusively with the examiner signing the objection letter.

Some entrepreneurs and start-ups, particularly at the early stages of setting up a business, find it hard to get the financial backing necessary to take their innovative ideas off the ground. Others, often due to lack of familiarity with the topic, fail to see the benefits of protecting intellectual property when deciding to take their business forward. To a large degree, the chances of success depend on the quality of the information SMEs have at their disposal.