At the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Trade in Alicante in Spain it is possible to apply for trademarks and design patents for goods and services which guarantee their holders trademark protection in the entire EU. However, so far fees were relatively high. Therefore, in today´s session of the EU council on competivity in Brussels ministers decided to reduce these fees.
In the past year alone about 77.500 new trademarks were registered in Alicante. This by far exceeded expectations. Another effect was that fees taken in were also higher than expected. Thus, the Council on competivity by today´s decision took up a proposal by the German EU presidency which had called on a considerable reduction of fees. These had already been reduced in the year 2005. The Commission still has to decide to which exact extent fees are going to be reduced. 