EUIPO has adopted the CP11 Common Practice (New types of trade mark – examination of formal requirements and grounds for refusal) and CP12 Common Practice (Evidence in trade mark appeal proceedings: filing, structure and presentation of evidence, and the treatment of confidential evidence).

The CP11 Common Practice establishes general principles on the examination of formal requirements and grounds for refusal and/or invalidity of new types of trade mark, namely sound, motion, multimedia and hologram marks, and the new ways of representing them.

The CP12 Common Practice provides recommendations regarding evidence in trade mark appeal proceedings, in particular, its types, means, sources and identification of relevant dates, as well as its structure and presentation, and the treatment of confidential evidence.

The Common Practices will be implemented by IP offices in Spring 2021 and made available through publication of corresponding Common Communications. For further information, click here.