Even though the UK -IPO do not charge a fee for the update of a name or address using a Form TM21A most representative's will charge for the update. Making this type of change is currently fairly time consuming for an owner or his representative. I have just spent 40 minutes from start to finish dealing with one simple change. If I had done the same thing at the EU IPO it would be all sorted in maybe 4 - or perhaps two times that because I did the change of representative on my UK case at the same time and that would have been a separate operation prior to the name change at EU IPO.
So because its really nice to View owners other marks and because its even nicer to offer owners a free service to make these simple updates - could we ask the smart masters of the website to consider whether the next form to migrate to being online could be the TM21.
It might need some added security as we don't want incorrect updates to be registered and being fee-free might allow some nefarious activity to take place. However I am sure that could be managed. I have no evidence that EU IPO have suffered unduly from false amendments.
With many trade mark owners reviewing their portfolios in readiness for #Brexit this would be a good time to make this available.
What do folk think ? would this improve the service to both the public and the trade mark owners.
If they did make TM21 online, which would be helpful, it would be particularly helpful if the system automatically informed the outgoing representative by email. It's always infuriating to find you are no longer representative for a case years after the event because a new representative didn't inform you.
ReplyDeleteLooks as if EU IPO are doing that now too
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