EU Trade Mark Practices and IT Tools Workshops in Alicante to sow the seeds for IPR Protection in the SEA

The IP Key South-East (SEA) Project closed the year 2019 with  two activities organized in headquarters of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in Alicante, Spain on 2-5 December.  The activities focused on the Convergence Programme, which aims to harmonize practices among Intellectual Property Offices, and IT Tools for trade marks and industrial designs. EUIPO IP and IT experts facilitated the activities attended by trade mark and IT officials from SEA countries. 

The Workshop on the Extension of EU Trade Mark Practices to SEA IP Offices for trade mark officials from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam covered the EUIPO trade mark guidelines, the activities of the EUIPO Academy, and the Initial Central Examination initiative.  The workshop aimed at promoting the adoption  of best practices  in trade marks by the SEA IP Offices to continue to improve the quality and timeliness of services they provide users worldwide. 

The Workshop and On-site Training on IT Tools for IP Authorities: TMView, DesignView, and TMClass focused on training the IT officials from Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam on the administration of maintenance of IT tools to ensure that clients are provided with information on trade marks and designs 24/7. Brunei Darussalam and the Philippines are part of TMview and DesignView while Malaysia is already in TMview and TMclass.  Thailand recently joined TMview and is working with the EUIPO on their integration in DesignView.   

The EUIPO has been collaborating with the SEA countries in having them all part of TMview and DesignView, the EUIPO tools that provide accurate and updated information on trade marks and industrial designs from more than 60 IP Offices to global users. TMview contains more than 54 million trade mark records while DesignView has over 14 million industrial designs.