European Union to reduce trademark fees by over 40%
The EU trademark office recently announced that a fee reduction will take effect May 1, 2009, that will significantly decrease the costs of European Union trademark protection. The OHIM has indicated that the current economic downturn and an OHIM budget surplus of nearly 300 million euros prompted adoption of the fee reduction plan.
Currently, the fees to electronically file a European Community trademark application total 1600 euros, which includes a filing fee of 750 euros and a registration fee of 850 euros. The new plan, which EU members overwhelmingly approved, will eliminate the 850 euro registration fee and raise the application filing fee to 900 euros. The result will be an overall fee reduction of 700 euros for electronically filed applications.
The EU also reduced the costs for Madrid Protocol applications from 1,450 to 870 euros.
If the OHIM has not yet assessed a registration fee for an application pending as of May 1st, the application will not be subject to registration fees. Consequently, applications filed prior to May 1st will actually cost slightly less than those filed after that date, because the applicant will have paid a 750 euro filing fee rather than the new fee of 900 euros. Therefore, if you have plans to file CTM applications, you should consider filing them prior to May 1, 2009.
For more information regarding protection of trademarks in the United States or abroad, contact our team of Miller Canfield Trademark attorneys.