The European Union Official Gazette recently reported the publication of Regulation UE 2015/2424 concerning amendments and changes relating to the Regulation on the Community Trademark (CTM). The new Regulation will enter into force on March 23, 2016.

As of the above date the receiving Office will be called European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Community Trademark will be called European Union Trademark. Furthermore, all Community Trademark applications and Community Trademarks will respectively become Trademark Applications and Trademarks of the European Union. The provisions of the new Regulation will apply also to these latter.

Article 28 (8) of said new Regulation provides a transitional period of 6 months (up to September 24, 2016) during which the owners of European Union Trademarks filed before June 22, 2012 (publication date of EU decision C-307/10), are invited to better elaborate and specify the list of goods/services on the basis of the principle “what you see is what you get”.

Said new Regulation will affect the scope of the trademark’s list of goods/services. Lack of compliance with the new Regulation determines that the list of goods will be read for its literal meaning and this may cause a smaller scope of the trademark itself compared to the previous Regulation in force.

Furthermore, changes have been introduced in relation to tax system, particularly with regards to the filing of new trademark applications and renewal of registration trademarks.