Study visit to EUIPO and IPIL on trademark and industrial design registration practices

Date: 04 – 07 December 2019

Aim and program of the visit

During the study visit, the following topics were addressed: The legal and institutional context of Luxembourg in the field of Industrial Property, promotion and provision of services to the public and businesses on the importance of IP, introduction to EU law on industrial property, analysis of the European legal framework and cases handled by the EU Court of Justice, guidelines for examination of trademarks and industrial designs, absolute and relative grounds for refusal of trademark, and a visit to the house of entrepreneurship.

The visit is organized with the financial support from the Luxembourg Government under the Human Capacity Development Facility for European integration managed by the Ministry for European Integration of Republic of Kosovo.

Benefits / lessons learned for institutions

The Industrial Property Agency will launch legal reforms in 2020, which include the amendments to the Law on Trademarks, Patents, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indicators. Amendments to the Law on Trademarks include the transposition of the Directive EU/2015, an issue discussed during this study visit, lessons of which are to be applied to these amendments.

The agency has also introduced some good practices in the field of industrial property promotion and the topics discussed in this meeting were the change of approach to parties and preparation of information brochures on industrial property objects.

Examination of trademarks under the procedures established by EU practice, which are set out in the EUIPO guidelines, are necessary lessons for the Agency, which will be applied to industrial property registration procedures.