A change in Art. 39 of CTM Regulation covering applications for Community Trade Marks (CTMs) will make national searches optional from 10 March, 2008.

The new content of the mentioned rule establishes that national search reports will be produced only on request of the applicant under an all-or-nothing principle, whereby searches will be done for a separate fee in all participating member states of the EU (17 national offices are taking part from March 2008). Notwithstanding, Community search reports and warning letters will continue to be delivered as before.

The request for national searches must be made when the application is filed and the fee to be applied is currently being reviewed.

For trade marks with a filing date prior to 10 March 2008, the previous system will apply, which means that Community and national searches will be carried out automatically in all cases without the obligation to pay a specific search fee. A period of three months is given to national offices to produce the search reports.

For marks filed from 10 March and onwards, the following will apply:

- A Community search report will be produced in all cases, whereas national search reports, in a harmonized format, will be prepared only on request by applicants.

- The period for producing searches given to the national offices taking part in the system is reduced from three to two months.

- A request for national searches means that all participating national offices will carry out the search, all of which must be paid for. It will not be possible to select some countries for searches and leave out others.

This new system will definitely speed up the CTM registration procedure as the timetable for searching delays publication up to three months and the searches were inefficient as they were incomplete, Germany, France, Italy and Ireland did not participate in the search proceeding.

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