‐
‐
‐
The first phase is the
triggering of the update by
stakeholders’ feedback.
The second is the
preparation of the draft
Guidelines by the Office.
This phase produces the
draft Guidelines after a
three‐step internal process
(ANALYSE, DRAFT and DISCUSS).
OHIM
President
Users
Final
Guidelines
OHIM
Analyze
AB
IP NOs
Users
Draft
OHIM
draft
Guidelines
The third phase leads to the
OHIM
Translate
discuss
adoption of the Guidelines
in four steps: TRANSLATE,
CONSULT (the users associations, the EU National IP Offices and the Office’s Administrative
Board) and ADOPT, where the President of the Office adopts the new Guidelines.
The figure on the right illustrates these phases and steps.
As new issues constantly emerge from case‐law regarding operational or stakeholder needs,
the process for revising the Guidelines re‐starts immediately after their adoption.
In order to balance the work evenly over the year, we have divided the Office’s practice into
two working packages (see table in Annex 1):
•
the process for reviewing practice items included in work package 1 (WP1) starts
every January with a view to having (partially) updated Guidelines by December of
the same year;
•
the process for reviewing items in work package 2 (WP2) starts every July in order to
have (partially) updated Guidelines by June of the following year.
Since these work packages will be known to all our stakeholders and, in particular, to our
users, they can arrange well in advance to submit their feedback and/or comments to the
Office in order to have their issues dealt with during the revision process.
2
3. THE PHASES IN DETAIL
Users
OHIM
President
Users
Final
Guidelines
OHIM
Analyze
AB
IP NOs
Users
OHIM
draft
Draft
Guidelines
3.1. Phase one: User’s feedback
Translate
OHIM
discuss
As outlined above, the Office will inform our users of the plan to revise our practice by
making public (a) the subject of future revisions (i.e. the two work packages in Annex 1) and
(b) the timing (i.e. by indicating that WP1 will be revised as of January and WP2 as of July).
The Office will thus invite its external stakeholders to send us their comments or feedback
before January (for WP1) and July (for WP2) respectively. Even if the comments or feedback
are not received “on time” (before January/July respectively), they will still be taken on
board in the next cycle.
In fact, users’ comments and feedback are welcome at any moment without being subject to
any time constraints because this is a cyclical process. Regardless of when the comments
reach us, we will take them on board in the next iteration.
Further, regular exchanges of views between the Office and the users’ associations over the
year will ensure that users’ positions are fed into process on a regular basis but without
unnecessary time constraints.
Finally, as the draft Guidelines will also be submitted to the Administrative Board, users can
also present their positions at the Administrative Board.
Draft Guidelines
OHIM
President
Users
Users
Final
Guidelines
OHIM
Analyze
AB
IP NOs
Users
OHIM
draft
Draft
Guidelines
3.2. Phase two: preparation of the draft Guidelines
Translate
OHIM
discuss
The process for updating the Office’s practice starts each year in January and July with WP1
and WP2 respectively. Feedback and comments received from the users submitted in
advance will be considered.
Every January (for WP1 items) and July (for WP2 items), OHIM’s cross‐departmental teams
(the so‐called Knowledge Circles) will produce the new draft Guidelines.
In order to make that possible, different steps must be completed in a timely manner, these
are: ANALYSE, DRAFT and DISCUSS.
In the first phase, ANALYSE, the Knowledge Circles will extract trends from the case‐law of the
General Court, the Court of Justice and the Boards of Appeal of the previous years, analyse
the results of the convergence projects between OHIM and the EU IP Offices and consider
any feedback or comments received from our users and internal stakeholders.
3
On the basis of this analysis, we will launch the second phase, DRAFT, where the Knowledge
Circles will produce a number of updated sections of the Guidelines. Normally, these two
phases, ANALYSE and DRAFT, should be completed in eight weeks.
The third phase, DISCUSS, is an internal discussion: the new texts will be sent for consultation
between the different units and departments affected by the updates. Meetings and
presentations will be held and discussions will take place. The goal is that any department
affected by the update expresses its views. As a consequence of these discussions, the
original texts will usually be revised and, sometimes, even sent for an additional round of
discussions. This may take up to eight additional weeks.
At the end of this process, the Knowledge Circles will have produced new draft Guidelines by
June (for WP1 items) and December (for WP2 items) these draft Guidelines will be published
on the Office’s website.
OHIM
President
Users
Guidelines
adopted
Final
Guidelines
OHIM
Analyze
AB
IP NOs
Users
OHIM
draft
Draft
Guidelines
3.3. Phase three: adoption of the updated Guidelines
Translate
OHIM
discuss
The draft Guidelines will then be sent for translation into the five languages of the Office.
Once the translations are ready, they will be circulated amongst the user associations, the
EU IP offices and the BOIP with a view to getting their feedback for the next meeting of the
Administrative Board (AB). After consulting the AB, the President will adopt the updated
Guidelines.
