The IPKat has received this message from MARQUES, which he feels is so
important that he is posting it immediately: MARQUES, the European
Association of Trade Mark Owners, has recently become aware of the
Commission’s now advanced proposals to “codify” the 1988 Trade Marks
Directive (Directive 89/104/EEC) and the 1993 Community Trade Mark
Regulation (Regulation No. 40/94). MARQUES generally recognizes the
benefit of cofified legal texts and thus supports the policy behind the
Better Regulation Programme. However, in this instance, MARQUES finds
that the disadvantages clearly outweigh the advantages.The provisions
of the Trade Marks Directive and the Community Trade Mark Regulation
are an integral part of the daily professional life of trade mark
owners and practitioners in Europe and elsewhere, both as to their
substance and as to their titles. To codify and thereby to re-title
these provisions will thus have a very notable legal and practical
impact. In this regard, MARQUES observes that it has never received any
request from its members to press for such codification, which clearly
indicates that users of the system as it stands do not experience any
problems with it. In addition, MARQUES notes that the Commission has
indicated that it seeks to undertake a general review of the European
trade mark system. This in turn may lead to new legislative proposals
and further amendments of the present texts. The impending prospect of
a general review clearly speaks in favour of postponing the present
planned codification.MARQUES therefore shares the views expressed by
the European Communities Trade Mark Association (ECTA), whose Council
resolved on 1 July 2008 to request the European Commission to withdraw
these proposals from the agenda of proposed legislation and to request
the governments of the Member States of the European Union to oppose
the legislative proposals when they are presented for adoption in the
Council of Ministers.Unfortunately, statements like this are of no
value at all unless sensible, concerned people act upon them. So the
IPKat urges you: if you have any influence, or know anyone who has any
influence, please support MARQUES and ECTA in their request to the
Commission. And if you know who within the Commission is the individual
whose job it is to deal with this matter, please tell the IPKat so that
he can urgently contact him in person in order to press the
professions' case.

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Posted By Jeremy to IPKat - news and fun for everyone! on 7/18/2008
05:30:00 PM