European Union Intellectual Property Office

Historia

The European Union Intellectual Property Office, founded in 1994, is the European Union Agency responsible for the registration of the European Union trade mark and the registered Community design, two unitary intellectual property rights valid across the 28 Member States of the EU. Every year, it registers an average of 135 000 EU trade marks and close to 100 000 designs.The EUIPO is based in Alicante, on the south-east coast of Spain, and there are five working languages at the Office – English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The office also processes trade mark and design applications in 23 official languages of the EU.EUIPO was formerly known as the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market . The OHMI underwent some reforms and the Office as well as several positions and the governing board were renamed to mirror these changes. Since March 2016, OHMI has been known by its current name. The head of the agency was changed from President to Executive Director.FunctionsThe Office is in charge of managing the registration of the EU trade mark and the registered Community design and offers businesses and citizens exclusive rights for trade mark and design protection throughout the European Union (EU), with a single application.The work of this EU agency extends beyond registration to cover the harmonisation of registration practices for trade marks and designs and the development of common IP management tools. This work is carried out in cooperation with the national and regional IP offices throughout the EU-28, user associations and other institutional partners with the objective of offering users of the trade mark and design system a similar registration experience, be it at national or at EU level.