Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) in Europe

The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) is the official authority carrying out the procedures for the Community trade marks since 1996 and for the Community registered design from 2003. These intellectual property rights are valid in all the countries of the EU.

Trade marks and designs belong to the world of private company law. The OHIM is both an agency of the European Community and an industrial property office with its technical function: the registration of industrial property rights.

As a service agency, the Office has to place its clients, that is to say the undertakings that file their trade marks and their designs with the OHIM, at the centre of the overall mechanism of the Office and it has to provide them with the best service at the best price.

The Community trade mark and the Community registered design are the gateway to a single market. Their unitary nature means that formalities and management can be kept simple: a single application, a single administrative centre and a single file to be managed.

A uniform law applies to trade marks and designs, thereby providing strong and unique protection throughout the European Union. The simplification results in considerably reduced costs as compared with the overall costs of national registration in all countries of the European Union.

The size of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) today, the speed at which it has grown and the way it became self-financing from its second year of operation are proofs of the success of the system at the service of the single market.