The European Commission has launched a public consultation inviting citizens and organisations as well as national and regional public authorities to contribute to the assessment of how to strengthen the geographical indications system.

The Roanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM) has enhanced its front-office and back-office applications with added capabilities.

Con il supporto del servizio Cooperazione europea dell’EUIPO, l’Ufficio brevetti della Repubblica di Bulgaria (BPO) ha migliorato il servizio ai propri utenti varando una nuova versione del sistema di front office per il trattamento delle domande di marchi, disegni e modelli e l’erogazione dei relativi servizi elettronici.

Dal 20 gennaio 2021, l’Ufficio norvegese della proprietà industriale (NIPO) intensifica l’uso di TMclass. A partire da tale data il NIPO utilizzerà e accetterà i termini in norvegese dell’Harmonised database (HDB) di prodotti e servizi di TMclass.

The State Agency on Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova (AGEPI) has published Practice Paper: Likelihood of confusion (impact of non-distinctive/weak components) relative grounds of refusal.

On 18 November 2020 and 22 December 2020, under the framework of the European Cooperation Project (ECP8) ‘European Network of Authenticities’, the municipalities of Sofia and Plovdiv became the first certified Bulgarian ‘Authenticities’.

The Industrial Property Organisation in Greece (OBI), 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 online platform to file applications for design registrations electronically.

The Austrian Patent Office (ÖPA – Österreichisches Patentamt) has launched a new ‘Trade Mark Opposition’ eService, a modern online service for trade marks.

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.