Introduction

In This Issue Spring 2004

On 1st May 2004, the European Union will welcome 10 new members. The entry of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia to the EU will bring the total number of Member States to 25. The European Community of nations has come a long way since the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, a body consisting of just 6 countries, whose primary raison d’etre was to prevent the calamity of any further war in Europe.

This is the first time that the EU has been enlarged since the creation of the Community Trade Mark regime. It is also the first time that countries from the former Eastern bloc (discounting the merger of East and West Germany) will have gained entry to the EU. Both of these facts present trade mark owners with new challenges. In the former case, it will now become even more difficult to identify a trade mark that can be protected throughout the EU, given the new absolute and relative grounds of objection that will arise from the entry of the ten new States. In the latter case, the potential for increased parallel importation (and counterfeiting) from the low cost, Eastern European markets will inevitably put some pressure on the profit margins that can be sustained in the more established, Western European markets.

It is submitted however that, for the vast majority of trade mark owners, these problems will be outweighed by the advantages of having a single economic area with a population of about 450 million. Furthermore, if one looks beyond the narrow economic interest to the broader political situation, it is believed that another conflagration in Europe will become ever less likely, the more former enemies recognise that they have a common economic and political future.