BOIP introduces administrative cancellation & invalidation procedures

Trademarks
Designs
3 May 2018

Janneke Zengin

Marketing & Communicatie assistant

The Benelux Office for the Intellectual Property (BOIP) has reached new important milestones in view of harmonization of European Trademark Law: The introduction of administrative cancellation and invalidation procedures.

It herewith follows the procedural system of the EU IPO as already in force for many years. For Trademark owners these administrative proceedings entail the benefit it will no longer be required to initiate judicial proceedings, which are often more expensive and hence presented a higher threshold for taking contentious action.

These procedures will enter into force on 1 June 2018, together with the new competences of the Benelux Court of Justice, which is henceforth the new and sole appeal body for BOIP.

Under the old regime, appeals against the decisions of the BOIP had to be filed with the Courts of Appeal of Brussels, The Hague or Luxemburg, which had led to some discrepancy in case law.