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I read a message from Director General Kamil Idris at WIPO that "Each year on April 26, governments and organizations around the world join WIPO in celebrating World Intellectual Property Day. The theme this year is encouraging creativity. "

Wow! Have you ever tried to get in contact with Authorities during weekends? Now WIPO will have a celebration tomorrow Saturday. I wonder how many people that will show up?

In Sweden it takes 13 weeks before you have any decision in an electronic filed trademark applications and if you are unlucky and anyone files an opposition against your registration, then it takes 15 months after you finalized all correspondence before the legal officers start locking at the case! The backlog is even worse at European Patent Office.

My short reflection is that IP Offices should focus on shortening the Examination proceedings and deliver high quality decisions in stead of creating and ce ...

OHIM has had another record year for applications for Community trade marks and designs. The Annual report shows that in 2007, demand for Community trade marks was up 13% and applications for designs rose by 10%. The Office dealt with around 90,000 applications for CTMs and almost 80,000 applications for the Registered Community Design (RCD) during the year.

Moreover WIPO has announced a record number of patent filings in 2007. 4.7% more applications were filed under the PCT compared to 2006, taking the total to 156 100 applications last year.

I assume this will continue and if you haven’t start thinking about protecting your intellectual assets you are probably in the wrong business or soon out of business!