Croatia to join European Union in July 2013
By Sarah Chatterley.
On 1 July 2013 the European Union will expand as another member joins. With Croatias accession the EU will total 28 members. This is good news for Community Trade Mark and Community Design Right applicants and registration owners as their rights will automatically include Croatia. Transitional measures have been in place since December 2012.
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Changes to time limits for filing European divisional apps
By John Rule
On the 1st April 2010 the rules regarding filing divisional applications stemming from European Patent Applications changed. The changes in the rules mean that decisions regarding divisional application strategy may need to be made much earlier than previously.
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Current members of the EU
To obtain trade mark protection in all of the EU via one application, please see our section on Community Trade Marks. There are currently 28 members, but a Community Trade Mark encompasses new members as they join.
Please see links to other websites for details of current members of the Madrid Protocol (International Register).
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Small claims track now available for intellectual property
Court proceedings are often a costly and time consuming aspect of defending and enforcing intellectual property (IP) and this usually discourages individuals and small companies from taking action against infringers since it is often a struggle to justify the cost.
Following the publication of recommendations for streamlining the intellectual property litigation system and for reducing the costs of pursuing lower value claims, the Patents County Court (PCC) successfully introduced procedures to help it deal more efficiently with lower value and less complicated IP claims.