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What's happening at the trade mark and design Register?

In June, following internal changes at OHIM, responsibility for the Register passed to the newly created Department for Designs and Register, under the leadership of Director Pedro Rodinger.

“We have to acknowledge that there have been a lot of complaints from customers about the quality of the service at the Register. We take these seriously and are taking vigorous action to tackle the problems”, says Rodinger.

To help deal with the issue, the number of staff in the Register dealing with keying in changes in details for owners and representatives has been increased temporarily from 16 to 20 and this has resulted in the backlog being cut from three months to around one month at present.

The problem illustrates the continued need for manual intervention to keep files in the Register up to date. This contrasts with the situation for initial data entry, which is now increasingly taken care of by customers directly, via electronic applications. Well over 90% of CTMs, over 70% of RCDs and 95% of renewals are filed online, but the remaining paper applications and subsequent updates to the Registry still have to be keyed in by OHIM.

At present, the Register contains details of around 360,000 owners and 40,000 representatives. The numbers continue to grow every year, and this requires an on-going “data cleansing” operation to try and ensure that entries remain valid and possible duplicates are eliminated.

In addition, the Register deals with many requests from owners and representatives to change details, such as addresses. Last year the Register handled 33,000 such requests and this year the figure is expected to rise to around 40,000, a 10% increase.

While the biggest volume of changes relates to owners and representatives, the Register also has a so-called Recordals section dealing with other types of data changes and entries. The term “Recordals”, is an internal name for changes and entries to the Register and its job is examining client requests and keying in database updates. Last year OHIM's Recordals section dealt with about 13,000 requests, including 7,000 transfers of ownership and 2,000 seniority claims. The remaining requests cover licences, claims for cancellation or invalidity, divisions of trade marks, requests for conversion of a CTM application into one or more national applications and a lot of other entries which are rather low in volume but require an important amount of experience in trade mark issues.

The quality of the service is constantly evaluated in terms of accuracy and also with regard to timeliness. At present, Pedro Rodinger acknowledges that we are still falling short of published standards for registering 95% of change of ownership or a seniority claims within 14 days.

In addition to the remaining manual aspect of keeping the information updated, the Register also expects this year to handle around 9,000 Inspection of File requests, which involve printing and sending out paper copies for customers to who need them. Thanks to the Online Access to Files for trade marks, the users can access all published CTMs via CTM Online and review the file content themselves, free of charge and without the need of intervention by OHIM.

Pedro Rodinger says the question of improving the service at the Register is being tackled on both the manual and the electronic fronts. “In addition to reinforcing the staff to deal with updating of owners' and representatives' data, we are working in parallel to introduce new e-business tools.”

Users of MyPage, the password-protected platform making it easier to do business with OHIM, have already been provided with a “Personal Data Administration” tool, allowing them to change their details online. The tool also allows representatives to change the details for their clients. All OHIM users can sign up for MyPage, giving them access to a personalised platform, which in this case allows them to avoid the delays caused by sending a fax or mail request, but also offers a host of other useful functions.

Work is also under way on an E-Register tool that, in addition to allowing changes in personal data online, will permit changes of representation and transfers of ownership. E-Register is expected to be on full release at around June 2010.

Pedro Rodinger says that while improved e-Business tools will eventually eliminate some of the causes for concern at the Register, OHIM realises that customers need a solution to their updating of data as quickly as possible.

“We are not waiting for the electronic solutions, and indeed, the extra staff we have made available to the Register has already made a big difference, and have reduced the backlog significantly. We expect to have it eliminated completely by next February”, he adds.