Workshop to bolster substantive examination of trade marks

From 13 to 16 May 2024, five trade mark examiners from OAPI participated in a four-day workshop with EUIPO examiners at EUIPO’s offices in Alicante, Spain.

The workshop is part of a project with the aim of lending‘Support to the OAPI capacity building programme for trade mark and design examiners at the EUIPO on substantive examination issues’ and follows on from a similar workshop for the OAPI industrial examiners which took place in April 2024. The initiative is aimed at building the capacity of OAPI trade mark examiners and management staff on the principles of substantive examination, following the implementation of substantive examination, and not only formalities examination, by OAPI since January 2022.

The workshop focused on knowledge sharing and the examination of OAPI and EUIPO practices in relation to trade marks, with the intention of providing the OAPI examiners with a comprehensive understanding of the EUIPO processes regarding examination procedures and practices.

Specific aspects considered in the workshop included trade mark examination guidelines; digital technologies and the metaverse in the classification of goods and services and in examination; classification of figurative elements, as well as identification and implementation of the changes made by the 12th edition version 2024 of the Nice Classification; assessment of the similarity of signs in the context of relative grounds for refusal; substantive examination practices, specification division of an application and transfer of applications; and assessing the distinctive character of all types of trade marks, including non-traditional trade marks.

Source: https://afripi.org/en/news/oapi-trademark-examiners-build-capability-substantive-examination-procedures-intellectual