Operations and Developments
In a report released in March 2008, OHIM announced that due to the strong demand for EU-wide trademarks, the agency had accumulated a budget surplus of nearly €300 million, despite the fact that fees had been reduced by 25%, to around €1,600 in 2005. The agency's head, Wubbo de Boer, publicly advocated further reducing fees, and from 1 May 2009, the cost of having a Community Trade Mark fell by a further 40% to €900 for an online application.
OHIM also used €50 million from the surplus to establish a cooperation fund between its operations and those of the national offices in each member state of the European Union. A great deal of controversy surrounds the fund and exactly how it should be spent: some commentators suggest that it should be used to commercialize the national offices by improving their technical systems. In an interview with World Trademark Review, António Campinos, president of the Portuguese IP office, who has been appointed to succeed de Boer as OHIM President from 1 October 2010, said: "It's curious to note that the less sophisticated offices are those that have no financial autonomy."
Read more about this topic: Office For Harmonization In The Internal Market
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