A joint seminar organized by the Irish Patents Office (IPO) and the Community Trade Mark Office (OHIM) took place on June 4th in Dublin  and was attended by Cliff Kennedy, Norman MacLachlan, Robert Hayes, Peter MacLachlan and Jonathan White.

There were presentations by, amongst others, the President of the OHIM, Mr António Campinos and Mr Dermot Doyle of the IPO. The European Trade Mark and Design Network which will work to reduce the differences in practices between offices in order to make things easier for users is currently under development and the various speakers discussed the project and their presentations outlined and explained some of the features of this new network and identifying the databases that will be available on the new dedicated website.

It was also mentioned that a survey similar to that conducted in the United States is being carried out in the European Union – on April 11, 2012, the U.S. Commerce Department released a report, entitled “Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus”, which found that intellectual property (IP)-intensive industries support at least 40 million jobs and contribute more than $5 trillion dollars to, or 34.8% of, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).