Intellectual property: The Commission has published a Communication on the findings concerning the grant under the Taiwan trademark law of priority rights

The Commission have published a Communication on the findings concerning the grant under the Taiwan trademark law of priority rights deriving from Community trademark applications.

The Commission and the Taiwan have been discussing possible solutions to the issue of priority since the Commission’s previous Communication 96/C 335/03. Under this communication Taiwanese nationals could become proprietors of Community trademarks under Article 5(1)(d) of Council Regulation (EC) No 40/94. They could not, however, claim priority when applying for Community trademark on the basis of a first filing of the same mark in Taiwan.

The delegations from Taiwan and the Commission have now reached an agreement on the issue which will take effect as from 1 August 1998. The National Bureau of Standards of Taiwan will accept priority claims deriving from a first application for the registration of a European Communities trademark in the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market. Likewise, the Office for Harmonisation will accept priority claims deriving from a first application for the registration of trademark effected with the National Bureau of Standards of Taiwan.