Successful regional conference took place in the Hungarian Patent Office on the coexistence of the Community and national trade mark systems in Europe

Successful regional conference took place in the Hungarian Patent Office on the coexistence of the Community and national trade mark systems in Europe

On 3 November 2009 the HPO offered the venue for the "Regional Conference on the Coexistence of Community and National Trade Mark Systems in Europe".

The event was jointly organised by the HPO and the Organisation for the Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM).

The Conference was honoured by the presence and presentations of Mr. António Campinos, President of INPI Directive Council National Institute of Industrial Property of Portugal and Chairman of the OHIM Administrative Board, and Mr. Edmond Simon, Director General of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property. Other speakers of the Conference included Mr. Mihály Ficsor, Vice-President of the HPO, Ms. Zsófia Lendvai, attorney at law and Mr. István Gödölle, patent attorney.

The presentations provided useful information about the relation between the Community trade mark and the national trademark systems, also touched upon the issue of the use requirement of trade marks, in particular the geographical scope of the use of Community trade mark. The framework of the cooperation between OHIM and National Offices and the possible future forms of it also appeared as an appreciated subject in the conference.

The event was a success among the members of interested circles, who came from Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland and even Spain besides the Hungarian participants, as it elaborated on a hot topic, which is now debated in the European Commission as well.