According to a new law in Romania, all of the Romanian trademark applications will now be published at the online databased of the Romanian Trademark and Patent Office.

Interested parties will be able to file oppositions within two months from publications.

If you’re ever struggling to respond in time to a European patent application examination report, say, because you’re waiting to clinch a big deal that makes continuing with the application worthwhile, don’t forget the possibility of further processing.

Typically, an examination report from the EPO will have an initial response perod of four months, calculated from ten days after the report is issued. A two month extension is readily available; no official fee is payable. After that, extensions are harder to come by, granted only in special cases.

But what do you do if the extended period still doesn’t give you enought time? Well, the further processing mechanism is available.

In essence, further processing enables you to buy some more time. If you don’t respond in the extended period, you will get a Noting loss of right communication, probably, some weeks after the end of the period. But if, within two months of receiving the communication, you request further processing, pay a fee of Euros 225 and file a response, the loss of rights will be deemed never to have occurred.

So, in other words, by using further processing, you can extend the period for responding to an examination report to somewhere in the region of nine months without prejudicing your rights.

On 01 May 2010, Albania became a member of the European Patent Organisation.

Albania joins the 27 EU member states plus Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and Turkey as states for which the European Patent Office provides a centralised patent application examination procedure. Added to this are the extension states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia who recognise European patents on request.

Mr. Keith Jones, head of FWJ-UK, recently spoke on the recent European practice changes and on European oppositions, to the in-house IP counsel forum.

IP managers of many leading Israeli companies (names, unfortunately, cannot be published) attended, and enjoyed a nice evening at Fisher Weiler Jones’s new offices at Habarzel Street, while listening to Mr. Jones’s lecture.