Annual Technical Report on Trademark Information Activities in 2024 submitted by EUIPO

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URLs in responses should meet the following requirements:

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE 

A comprehensive overview of the EUIPO main policies and plans can be found on the EUIPO ONLINE website, which can be found at:

https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/web/guest/about-euipo

The EUIPO has a strategic plan in place to deliver high-value intellectual property (IP) services to citizens and businesses in an efficient and effective manner. The plan aims to foster innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth in Europe by providing reliable, legally sound, and enforceable IP rights.

The EUIPO's mission is to support the European economy by protecting and promoting IP rights, with a focus on excellence, quality, professionalism, transparency, trust, community, and inclusion. The office has five key goals:

1. Optimise operational efficiency and effectiveness to maintain high performance and long-term sustainability.
2. Enhance the value of IP products and services by expanding quality, consistency, and legal certainty.
3. Improve access to the IP system and promote the use of IP rights to support innovation-driven economic growth in Europe.
4. Build trust and respect for IP by ensuring effective enforcement and addressing IP infringement.
5. Ensure the long-term sustainability of the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN) by strengthening cooperation with national and regional IP offices.

The EUIPO's strategy is driven by two complementary strategic drivers:

1. Modern, high performing and resilient organisation: this driver focuses on improving the way the EUIPO works, by increasing productivity, optimising operational efficiency and effectiveness, and ensuring long-term sustainability.
2. Cooperation for high-value IP services to citizens and businesses: this driver focuses on establishing effective cooperation with external stakeholders, including national and regional IP offices, user associations, and other organisations, to provide high-value IP services and support the development of the EU's IP ecosystem.

To support the implementation of its strategy, the EUIPO has identified three organisational enablers:

1. People, technology and work environment: this enabler focuses on creating an environment where people, technology, and the workplace come together to drive innovation, productivity, and success, by enhancing organisational engagement, talent management, and continuous development.
2. Financial and administrative sustainability: this enabler focuses on ensuring the EUIPO's long-term financial sustainability, by maintaining a balanced budget, optimising financial operations, and ensuring transparency and accountability.
3. Network engagement: this enabler focuses on promoting a strategic reorientation of the EUIPN towards long-term sustainability, by strengthening common standards and practices, and enhancing cooperation with national and regional IP offices, user associations, and other stakeholders.

To achieve its goals, the EUIPO will focus on six priority impact areas:

1. Customer and Quality: enhancing the customer experience and delivering innovative IP products and services.
2. Awareness and Education: supporting a greater understanding of IP matters in Europe and beyond.
3. Promotion of Innovation: fostering value creation and promoting IP as a tool for growth and sustainable development.
4. Inclusive IP Landscape: making all types of IP in the EU accessible to all and promoting diversity and inclusion.
5. Enforcement: ensuring trust and respect for IP rights and combating IP infringement.
6. IP Alliances: evolving from a network to a community and promoting international cooperation and partnerships.

The EUIPO will work closely with national and regional IP offices, user associations, and other stakeholders to implement its strategic plan and achieve its goals. The office will also leverage technology and innovation to improve its services and operations, and to support the development of a robust, inclusive, diverse, and sustainable IP ecosystem.

For more information on the SP2030, please go to the following link:

https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/about-us/governance/strategic-plan

• Main areas of trade mark and design information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year  

The EUIPO aims to use these ICT practices to improve the customer experience, increase transparency and predictability, and provide better services to users.

Some key ICT practices mentioned in this section include:

• Use of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) to enhance operations and services.
• Development of a 'Comprehensive Early Case Management System' to instantly allocate cases to the respective teams of examiners
• Creation of a digital solution, the 'Inter Partes Co-creation Platform', to provide EUIPO users with access to updated information, automated tools and self-management functions of inter partes cases.
• Development of pre-assessment and pre-filing solutions to help users reduce the uncertainty involved when filing an EUTM application.
• Development of new IT solutions, functionalities, and working methods to improve the management of EUTMs and EU design filings.
• Integration of the 'G&S Advisor' into EUIPO’s e-filing forms and across the EUIPN to provide users with pre-filing guidance on trade mark classification.
• Development of virtual communities of experts to share information and best practices, and to find common solutions to common challenges.
• Development of a digital solution for the administration of the newly created EU wide IPR title for Craft and Industrial (CI) Geographical Indications (GIs).
• Creation of a GIPortal, the future e-filing system, and the Union Register for these geographical indications.
• Development of a digital solution for the Union Register for GIs for agricultural products, wines, and spirit drinks.
• Creation of a web Audiovisual Portal to provide access to visual and audiovisual content.
• Use of social media platforms to engage with users and raise awareness of IP issues.
• Creation of an online tool to help companies search for anti-counterfeiting technologies.
• Use of blockchain technology to protect supply chains from counterfeit goods.
• Development of a new online platform to support the IP Enforcement Portal (IPEP).
• Expansion of the EUIPO's online services and platforms, such as the e-filing system and the EUIPO's website, to improve the customer experience and provide better services to users

• Statistics:  changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes  

Please find below the links to the most important sources of information with respect to statistics in both the trade mark and design area:

• The Annual report

https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/news-and-events/publications/annual-report

• The Work Programme

https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/news-and-events/publications/work-programme

Broader statistics on trade mark and design activities can be found at the following link,

https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/about-us/the-office/who-we-are/transparency-portal

This includes the following useful information:

• The EUIPO Trade Mark Focus Report (2010-2017 Evolution)
• The EUIPO Design Focus Report (2010-2019 Evolution)
• The Alicante News – our newsletter

Additionally, in the following link (https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/the-office/about-us/what-we-do/statistics) there is a section with statistical reports on the EU trade mark (EUTM) and registered designs at EU level (RCD), giving general information on the total number of applications and registrations, including details per country or territory, per class of goods and services, and top filers.

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

• Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) – URLs

• https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/trade-marks

• Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

Trade marks: https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/trade-marks/how-to-apply

Designs: https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/designs/how-to-apply/apply-now

• Matters concerning classifying        

• Information on our practices in respect to Goods and Services:

https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/trade-marks/before-applying/goods-and-services

• Information on our practices in respect to Indication of Product:

https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/designs/before-applying/product-indication

• Use of electronic classification systems and pre-defined terms of the classification applied

• TMclass

The one-stop classification gateway to the Harmonised Database applied in the EU and other offices worldwide.

http://tmclass.tmdn.org/ec2/

• Similarity

Assessment of the similarity between goods and services by IP Offices in the EU.

http://euipo.europa.eu/sim/

• DesignClass

Compare the design classification databases of the participating offices.

https://euipo.europa.eu/designclass/

• Matters concerning processing of different types of non-traditional marks (e.g., three-dimensional, motion, hologram, color mark, etc.)

• Please find further information on all types of EU trade marks here:

https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/trade-marks/before-applying/types-of-trade-marks

III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

The EUIPO’s database access: eSearch Plus: Search trade marks, designs, owners, representatives, Bulletins and Office decisions in one single application

https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/

• Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online (URL), etc.

Also available via eSearch Plus

• Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases

Also available via eSearch Plus

• Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

Also available via eSearch Plus

• Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

Also available via eSearch Plus

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

• Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office:  general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

The EUIPO is using specific software tools tailored to their specific business processes. A series of tools allows the complete electronic management of the full process of EU trade marks and designs from:

• Electronic filings available on the EUIPO portal (https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en/trade-marks/how-to-apply/apply-now)
• Complete examination process for EUIPO examiners using the internally developed IPTool software (EUTM examination, opposition, registration, cancellation, recordals; EU design examination, registration, invalidity; Appeals)
• Register of EU trade marks and designs available via the online IP Register in the EUIPO website.

The EUIPO is using commercial off-the shelf tools for supporting business processes such as finance and HR management, for instance. In this particular business areas, the EUIPO is using SAP solutions.

• Hardware used to support business processes of the Office

The EUIPO has 2 ”state of the art” data centres to host their applications. These two data centres allow load balancing and disaster recovery.

Currently EUIPO is also exploring the capabilities proposed by the cloud, migrating little by little, some IT application in a controlled way. Today, mission critical systems, such as EUIPO Website and the e-filings are already hosted in the cloud.

All EUIPO staff work with laptops, allowing them to be able to work from anywhere. These laptops are running with Microsoft Windows, the Office 365 suite (authorized software only based on data protection rules).

• Internal databases:  coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
• Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file:  file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

The EUIPO use for themselves and also propose to the general public via their web site (https://euipo.europa.eu/) a series of on-line tools to perform searches on various databases on IP related matters:

• “eSearch plus” - Trade marks, designs, owners, representatives, and bulletins  
• eSearch Case Law - EU and national case law
• TMview - Trade marks in the European Union and beyond
  • DesignView - Designs in the European Union and beyond
  • GIview - Geographical indications in the European Union and beyond

The underlying databases are built by the EUIPO and all other IP offices that officially agree to share the information and make it available.

• Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
• Other matters 

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION

Information on the following topics is desired:

• Office’s library (if deals with industrial design information): equipment, collection management, network of libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign libraries

The EUIPO Library consists of a physical facility on EUIPO premises, which includes 14 workstations, a consultation area and reception. This library also has a digital library catalogue known as the Knowledge Hub. The library is for internal EUIPO staff. In 2024 the Academy held the third International Library Day in the Wubbo de Boer Interactive Centre.

The library holds 23 696 items, both physical and electronic of which 4 748 are IP books; 9 375 are IP bulletins, journals and reviews; 451 WIPO publications; 6 IP databases; 139 EUIPO publications and 92 IP related works and dissertations of EUIPO Trainees. The EUIPO Library is a member of EUROLIB, the European Community and Associated Institutions Library Co-operation Group.

• Publications related to different business procedures and industrial design information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

Check on EUIPO ONLINE.

• Cooperation with universities, technology, and innovation support centers, etc.

Academic Initiatives

Pan-European Seal Programme

In the 2024 the Pan-European Seal Programme (PES) reached 160 partner universities from 27 EU countries and 11 EPC member states cooperating with the EUIPO and the EPO. The EUIPO is also collaborating with 7 Universities outside the EU/EPC via bilateral agreements, namely with Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Tanzania. Approximately 90 high-achieving graduates benefited from a year-long, paid traineeship at the EUIPO in 2024 through the PES programme. Together with the Young Professionals programme, a total of 110 trainees were welcomed at the EUIPO.

During this traineeship, in addition to the on-the-job training professional experience gained at the EUIPO, trainees were invited to attend several major events:

• EUIPO Trainees Orientation Programme (ETOP);
• EUIPO Intensive IP Educational Programme (IIPEP) (open to all PES Universities as well);
• EUIPO Trainees’ Career Event, where different career paths and future career prospects were presented by the PES Alumni and the Talent Bank Associated Partners.

For 2025, the EUIPO Academy would like to explore the possibility of cooperating more with WIPO in the various academic initiatives mentioned below (e.g. Exchange programme with WIPO as well, to continue last year’s IP Intensive Programme etc.) especially taking into consideration the expansion of the PES programme to Universities outside the EU and the EPC members states.

Post-traineeship professional opportunities:

Exchange Programme

It allows PES trainees that are currently working at the EUIPO to apply for an exchange opportunity and second traineeship at the European Patent Office (EPO), and for the EPO Pan-European Seal trainees to apply for an exchange traineeship at the EUIPO. Since the inception of the programme and until October 2024 in total 52 EPO trainees have been welcomed at the EUIPO and 100 EUIPO trainees at the EPO respectively creating a strong collaboration between the 2 Offices and disseminate IP and its awareness among youngsters.

Talent Bank

This is an online platform that allows public and private partners, including law and consultancy firms, companies, EU and international organisations, national institutions, and universities to offer traineeships and/or jobs to the EUIPO Trainees alumni seeking further career opportunities following their traineeship at the EUIPO. In 2024, the total number of associated partners reached 37, and more than 140 job offers have been published in the tool since its inception.

Additional activities within the Network of Intellectual Property Academies (NIPA)

NIPA Annual meeting

The Network of IP Academies (NIPA) consists of the PES university members, the Talent Bank Associate Partners and the national IP offices. EU institutions and European university networks can also join as observers. NIPA members meet once a year to discuss an overview of the year that has passed, the traineeship programme, improvements and additional synergies that can occur between them  via common projects with the EUIPO. The idea is that this event takes place after newly adopted EUIPO projects are communicated and shared with NIPA members. The Annual meeting was held on 2– 3 December 2024 in a hybrid format at the EUIPO premises with more than 100 participants with very positive feedback.

Almost 35 000 participants attended any of the multiple training events organized by the EUIPO Academy in 2023 or completed courses in the Academy Learning Portal, with an approval rate of 89%.

Major IP and non-IP events

The third edition of the EUIPO Intensive IP Educational Programme (IIPEP) offered for free to all the PES Universities’ students and the EU National IP Offices, in collaboration with WIPO, EPO, CPVO, European Commission DG AGRI, and DG RTD, lasted 10 days including sessions on trade marks, designs, plant varieties, geographical indications and patents with  almost 2 000 registered participants and with an average of 800 connections per session.

The Regional IP Seminar “Unlocking IP: Exploring Cancellation and Geographical Indications for Craft and Industrial Products” held in October was organised in Valletta, Malta in hybrid modality. 140 participants attended the event which received a 94% of satisfaction rating.

The Focal Points meeting was held on-site in June with a new format capitalizing on the opportunity to strengthen the network and to create learning materials that will benefit all members 16 participants represented their National Office. The event received a 92% of satisfaction rating.

The IP Seminar on Designs: ‘Navigating the Realm of Design Protection from a User’s Perspective’ was held totally online in April (two mornings). The first morning focused on the protection of designs in the marketplace, with speakers from design associations (BEDA), industries (EFIC) and academic world (design schools). The second morning was more practical and presented the different strategies and options for product launches and design protection. The event was followed by 245 participants and received a 91% of satisfaction rating.

The EUIPO Trainees’ Career Event 2024, took place presentially at the EUIPO premises where different career paths and future career prospects were presented with more than 50 speakers by former PES Trainees (PES Alumni) representing their current employers (e.g. Law firms, companies, EU Institutions, International Organisations etc.). At the same event, the trainees received presentations by the Academy and the Talent Management Departments on how to draft their CVs, motivation letters and they are introduced to the Talent Bank tool and the Talent Bank Associated Partners are also presenting and introducing their Offices.

The 21^st edition of the INTA Industry Day was held online  in October. The event which topic was ‘IP and Artificial Intelligence,’ explored the current and future use of AI in trade mark and design registration, along with the role of IP Offices and associated ethical concerns. It also covered how AI is being applied in private practice, its impact on client counselling, and the implications for IP protection. 229 participants attended the event which reached 83% satisfaction rate.

Tuesday IP webinars have improved the IP knowledge of SMEs – EUIPO’s customers – by making the EUIPO’s decisions more accessible and predictable. The Academy has led this by developing and sharing its pedagogical expertise, and by optimising the marketing of webinars.

A total of 20 webinars were organised in 2024. In addition, the second Cineforum webinar “When fiction becomes reality ” was a successfully organised, attracting 476 participants in July, with a 90.19% overall satisfaction rate.

The average participation on webinars significantly increased from 685 participants in 2023 to 733 in 2024, with a general satisfaction of 88.5%.

The most relevant webinar was “EU Design Legislative Reform”, with 1555 total participants.

The Academy has also offered two masterclasses refresher sessions on soft skills, open to staff from the EUIPO and national offices and which have contributed to developing a common approach to these types of skills. In our masterclasses, an expert delivers a theory session (in webinar format), followed by a practical and personalised session.

The Academy has collaborated with BSD and BOD through the Academy Knowledge Circle to improve the impact of webinars and to offer, when possible, the webinar subtitled in the 5 working languages of the Office in the ALP. This initiative has aimed to increase users' knowledge on procedural aspects.

School and University visits

9 virtual school visits were organised, with an average satisfaction rate of 90%. A total of 261 students between 12 and 18 years old attended.  . A project was launched to adapt the programme to an even younger audience. The programme is now aimed at groups of students aged 10 to 18, with the content varying according to the age of the participants. As for the Virtual University Visits, 83 Universities, participated in the 8 visits organized between January and December. These sessions were attended by a total of 748 students and obtained an overall satisfaction rate of 95%.

Education Programmes

The ETMD EP for Practitioners 2023/2024 programme (5^th edition) opened in October 2023 and was fully booked (60 participants). The programme will run until June 2024, including e-learning and 21 IP labs consisting of practical activities.

The ETMD EP for Paralegals 2023/2024 (4^th edition): 60 external participants coming from 19 EU Member States and 5 EUIPO staff.

In cooperation with CD, a new Learning Wallet (LW) on Geographical Indications was drafted and added to the four IP topics: Basics on IP; Intermediate on IP; Design; Absolute Grounds which were drafted for the seminars organised with the “European Institute of Innovation and Technology” (EIT, A body of the European Commission). The LW on IP matters are available in the EUIPO website for everyone.

e-Learning content in the EUIPO Academy Learning Portal

There were over 235 000 visits to the EUIPO Academy Learning Portal in 2024, more than 20 000 hours were spent on courses by our users which resulted in almost               10 000 Course Certificates issued. Relevant online content continued to be made available to the public in 2024, including the creation and production of Registered EU Designs in a nutshell to have a course in line with the Desing Legislative Reform Phase I, and of IP monetisation opportunities, an online diagnosing resource to inventory a company´s IP assets and weighing how can those assets generate revenue.   

VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION

As part of the new SP2030, the EUIPO is actively working on enhancing the global IP ecosystem with international partners, the development of high impact projects and the promotion of innovative solutions. Building on its extensive international cooperation network, the EUIPO, together with the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN), is working to create a high-level IP dialogue platform to discuss emerging issues of common interest, leading to the formation of an agile IP alliance among like-minded organisations to share ideas, perspectives and best practices to further develop the global IP system. In this regard, the EUIPO is fostering strategic partnerships with leading IP organisations, user associations, business support organisations and financial institutions to tackle common challenges. This alliance works on emerging issues such as IP-backed financing, inclusiveness, and the exchange of data, knowledge and professionals.

The EUIPO also cooperates with other regional and international organisations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO).

In addition, the EUIPO participates in the TM5 and ID5 forums, which bring together the five largest offices in the world in volume of trade marks and designs (CNIPA, EUIPO, JPO, KIPO and USPTO) to exchange information and collaborate on projects of interest to their users. In 2026, EUIPO will be the host and secretariat of TM5 and ID5. The Annual Meeting will take place in Alicante with the 5 largest trade mark offices. 

The EUIPO works in close cooperation with the European Commission to support the implementation of EU policies, promoting robust intellectual property systems outside the EU. The EUIPO is currently implementing 8 EU-funded projects outside Europe. The projects are IP Key China III, SCOPE IPR, IP Key South-East Asia II,  IP4EU, AfrIPI, AL-INVEST Verde IPR, cariPI II, and EU-RoK IP Action.

Through these initiatives and partnerships, the EUIPO contributes to the strengthening of IP systems worldwide. Its work focuses on the following areas:

• Provide technical assistance to digitalize registries and provide access to information on trade marks and designs, as well as classification tools, such as: TMview, DesignView, TMclass, Harmonised Database and DesignClass.
• Capacity building of a wide range of stakeholders from IP Offices, enforcement entities, business support organizations, SMEs, producer groups of origin-linked products, control bodies and civil society.
• Promote IP education in schools and higher education sectors.
• Provide information and support to small and medium sized businesses.
• Raise the awareness of specific stakeholder groups or society at large about the value of IP.

VII. ACTIVITIES RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WIPO STANDARDS CONCERNING TRADEMARK INFORMATION

WIPO Standard ST.3: Two-letter codes for the representation of states, other entities and organizations: Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.13: Numbering of applications for IPRs: Implemented, with some necessary customization, as per some IP Offices practices.

WIPO Standard ST.60: Bibliographic data relating to trade marks: Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.61: The exchange of trademark legal status data: No plan to implement 

WIPO Standard ST.63: Content and layout of trademark gazettes: Implemented (partly, the publications of EU trademarks are done daily and only on the web in electronic format - PDF files)

WIPO Standard ST.66: Processing of trademark information using XML: Implemented, with some necessary customization to align with EUIPO business practices.

WIPO Standard ST.67: Electronic management of the figurative elements of trademarks: Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.68: Electronic management of sound marks: Implemented

WIPO Standard ST.90: Recommendation for processing and communicating Intellectual Property data using Web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces): Implemented (EUIPO external-facing APIs follow most of the recommendations described in the standard)

WIPO Standard ST.91: Recommendations on digital three-dimensional (3D) models and 3D images: Implemented (further alignment with the standard after the EU design legislative reform)

WIPO Standard ST.96: Processing of Industrial Property information using XML: Implemented (only in the context of International Designs)

• Other WIPO Standards Related to Trademarks

WIPO Standard ST.86: Processing of industrial design information using XML: : Implemented, with some necessary customization to align with EUIPO business practices.

WIPO Standard ST.97: Recommendation for processing of Intellectual Property Data using JSON: Planning to implement (the on-going ST.97 improvements in the context of the API Task Force will facilitate the adoption of this standard when the relevant use case is identified).