About Us

The Harmonization Committee’s activities include the conducting of surveys in all EU member states on the national law and practice with regard to legal issues of specific current interest. Surveys conducted by the Harmonization Committee e.g. dealt with:

• trade mark use in opposition and cancellation proceedings

• trade mark issues related to geographic indications

• trade marks filed in bad faith

• protection of marks with a reputation

• legal enforcement of security interests of trade marks

• conversion issues or

• comparison of the national laws as far as the CTMR explicitly provides for the application of national law.

The Harmonization Committee thereby creates a knowledge base which is useful to propose best practices, compare and benchmark practices and helps other committees to prepare position papers, proposals and replies to questions submitted by European Boards and Agencies.