OHIM fees: time for a price reduction?

“Think Small First”: a "Small Business Act" for Europe is the catchy short title for a 21-page document, the Communication From the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, adopted by the Commission this Wednesday.

Right: not everyone in OHIM is excited about it becoming more accessible. This design for the new OHIM Building was favoured by some of the office's less extrovert staff members

It says, at page 13:

"the Commission will make the Community Trade Mark system more accessible, in particular by significantly reducing Community Trade Mark fees as part of a comprehensive solution to the financial perspectives of the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM)".

Good news, says the IPKat. We've been lobbying for the fee reduction for a long time. Good news, says Merpel: making the system more accessible presumably means shifting OHIM from Alicante to a place that has a realistic selection of business flights.

The full version of the Small Business Act (82 pages) can be found here