EU Council Approves Compromise Agreement on Trademark Directive and CTM Regulation

On June 10, 2015, the Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee approved a comprise agreement on the European Trademark Reform. While the approved texts are now public, they are not yet final and still need to go through various procedural stages. Next steps include a vote in Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (scheduled for June 16, 2015), revision by lawyer-linguists over the summer and final endorsements by the Council and Parliament’s Plenary. Unless there are further delays, it is estimated that the implementation of the new rules will begin in early 2016.