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The Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union
You are here: Home > About OHIM > OAMI-ONLINE - Newsletter 06 - 2010 - New deadline for correcting translations in CTM applications
OHIM is introducing a change in practice to improve the efficiency of how we deal with amendments suggested by the applicant to translations of goods and services and other text in certain CTM applications. In future the time limit for sending such amendments will be one month instead of two at present.
The change only affects applications that are not made in one of the office's five main languages (DE, EN, FR, IT, ES), and where the applicant has also not provided a translation, in one of these languages, of the list of goods and services and other textual content such as colour claims or trade mark descriptions. This category accounts for just 7.5% of all applications.
At present, the office supplies the applicant with a translation of the list of goods and services and other text in the designated second language (DE, EN, FR, IT or ES) and allows a period of two months for a response. However, the office has found that amendments to the office's translation are requested in less than one in ten of the cases involved and most applicants do not reply at all. From 12 July 2010 , the period allowed for a response will, therefore, be reduced to one month and the relevant section of the OHIM Manual of Trade Mark Practice will be updated accordingly.
OHIM's Head of Service for Trade Mark Support, Alain Rassat, said it wasn't in the interest of most of the users involved for the office to wait so long for a possible response.
“The majority of applicants are quite happy to accept our translation, but they seldom reply. Bearing in mind that only a small number of changes are requested and it is a relatively straightforward matter , we think that it is reasonable to reduce the time allowed for this stage in the process”, he said.