Search Image is a service that aims to improve the current results of the figurative trade mark searches, with a possible extension to designs in the future.

In the IP world similarity between trade marks is understood as the "likelihood of confusion" and the "same overall impression" for designs. It is determined by combining several results:

• Verbal ranking: using "word" elements (e.g. denomination of the trade mark, verbal elements of trade marks and designs)
• Conceptual ranking: using classifications (e.g. Vienna codes for trade marks, Locarno codes for designs)
• Technical ranking: using image recognition technologies (colours, shape, texture, ornamentation).

The main beneficiaries of the tool will be the users of TMview who will have the possibility to search for similar images in a simpler and more efficient way.

Enforcement users and examiners will also benefit from this service. The tool will improve service standards and consistency of decisions when it comes to Vienna classification. Efficiency in processes will be increased by improving the use of image search functionality which will support opposition handling.

TMview is an online consultation tool allowing any Internet user to search for, free of charge, the trade marks of all trade mark offices involved in the initiative. You can use TMview to:

• Carry out 24/7 trade mark searches in 22 languages of the EU
• Gain first hand, daily updated trade mark information from the participating offices' official registers
• Access millions of trade mark applications and registrations
• Check the availability of an idea for a trade mark name
• Find out the goods and services protected by a competitors' trade mark
• Receive updates on selected trade marks for change of status, change of the applicant/owner name and end of opposition period
• Examine trade mark details such as legal status, graphic representation, registration date, etc.
• View the trade marks details in the office of origin
• Print or export trade mark information to PDF, Excel & XML

TMview also provides information and is a working tool for trade mark examiners.

Free online tool to search, translate or classify goods and services when applying for trade marks.

When applying to register a trade mark, you need to describe the goods and/or services for which you wish to protect your trade mark.

EuroClass is a central point from which it is possible to access the terms that appear in the classification databases of each of the offices participating in the initiative.

If the applicant uses the terms that appear in the database of the trade mark office where they seek protection, then the process of registration will be much faster. EuroClass can be used for the following:

• SEARCH TERM You can search for goods and services descriptions (terms) and find out which class they are in before you apply for trade mark protection.
• VERIFY LIST OF TERMS You can check if a list of goods and services in a given language appears in the database of a participating trade mark office with the same working language.
• TRANSLATE TERM For any word/s that you type in, you can find goods and services classification terms that contain that word or words, and the translations for the terms in the EU language of your choice.

A seniority claim allows you to maintain the right obtained in a member state, under the CTM.

The initiative enables participating IP offices to harmonize seniority information, achieve compliance with legislation on seniority effects, and contribute to providing enhanced IP protection for their users at national level so that users have the same high-quality experience, regardless in which database they need to check the details of the seniority claim.

It involves making the information accessible online, by using harmonized terminology, the creation of a seniority field and the establishment of hyperlinks between entries in the databases of participating offices and of the OHIM.

Transparent and harmonized information about services and quality standards provided by participating offices.

Quality is an online tool that promotes quality by providing transparent, easily accessible information on services and performance offered by each participating office. A user is able to select the required information through a variety of perspectives. The following information is available:

• Information related to a particular participating office
• Which offices supply which services
• Which offices are currently committed to which quality standards
• Shared and individual performance targets
• Most recent performance for each office
• Trends

A best practice forecasting model, deployed in an easy-to use web application, that will provide a harmonized planning, budgeting and forecasting environment

The quality of an IP office's resource planning directly depends on the quality of the underlying forecast methodology. While there is always an unavoidable degree of uncertainty to any prediction made, the predictive performance of applicable models varies significantly, and this variation can be empirically tested and benchmarked.

The tool will provide a best practice forecasting model in an easy-to use web application. Any data that is a driver for trade mark or design filings will be stored and controlled in a secure central database and analysed on their correlations. This will allow the user to perform analysis on the data directly or refresh reports previously defined. It will provide a planning, budgeting and forecasting environment that supports business modelling, enabling each office to develop timely, reliable forecasts, budgets and resource planning.

A tool that supports a basic set of questions and methodology from where participating IP offices can launch their IP surveys.

The tool (limesurvey) offers templates for the construction of user satisfaction surveys, containing a proposed and tested basic set of questions in the languages of the implementing countries, a user manual , guidelines for preparing and launching surveys, and resources for analysis and reporting results.

An analysis of the completed survey will allow the participating office to:

• measure customer satisfaction
• draw attention to areas for improvement
• plan future work of the office

A common search system for designs, based on information pooled from different sources. Also, a complementary examination/invalidation tool for participating IP offices.

Designview is an online consultation tool allowing any Internet user to search, free of charge, the designs of all participating offices. It is a multilingual and easy-to-use tool, and gives access to design applications and registrations provided by the participating offices through a single and unique platform. Each office owns the content it makes available and is responsible for its daily update. You can use Designview to:

• Check and visualize existing designs across Europe
• Check market tendencies
• Obtain easy access to post-registration services in a harmonized way
• Help users to check the novelty of a design
• In legal administrative and legal processes, for example, help customs in their procedures, judges in case of conflict between parties

Assist offices, for example, to carry out in-depth examinations or to help examiners to check earlier priority rights.

The tool gathers and shows assessments from the participating IP offices on similarities between goods and services.

In opposition and cancellation procedures the comparison of goods and services plays a crucial role in the examination procedure. Similarity is a central point where it is possible to consult the assessments of the participating offices with regards to the comparisons of goods and services.

You can either search for a particular comparison of 2 goods or services, or compare lists of goods and services. The goods and services that are compared in the tool are directly linked to Euroclass. This allows the user to explore them in more detail and make comparisons between the decisions taken by any participating office in any of the EU languages.

The Common Examiners Support Tool providing a harmonized search of several databases to support examiners.

CESTO is an automated and harmonized search tool which will perform searches for any given trade mark application and in turn provides information in relation to similar trade marks from an array of participating offices (who have their trade marks in TMview), similar trade marks from the same or similar owners from the same array of offices, emblems and other heraldic devices held by WIPO, Geographical Indications at EU and national level, International Non-Proprietary Names for active pharmaceutical ingredients from WHO (MedNet), as well as any specific information provided by the participating offices (on a dashboard). Some of the most commonly used webpages containing English language and specialized dictionaries will also be included.

An easy and efficient way to access the European Trade Mark and Design Network.

The platform allows users to access tools and knowledge bases of the European Trade Mark and Design Network. From this point you can:

• Access all the tools of the Cooperation Fund
• Read documentation provided by the Convergence Programme
• Learn about latest IP regulations
• Access IP offices and User Associations
• Access, by single sign-on, to authenticated areas if you are an IT administrator or member of a working group

A series of core IT activities that help participating offices to develop the best solution for the planning of future IT architecture and delivery of the extended common standard needed to enable systems to communicate.

This initiative was the first step in the process to develop future IT architecture and deliver an extended common standard needed to enable systems to communicate.

The initiative identified the following areas where common standards needed to be established:

• TM-XML and DS-XML standard extensions. The existing versions of TM-XML and DS-XML covered data dissemination, publication and e-filing. These standards needed to be extended in order to enable the new software to meet the needs of all participating offices within a single common communications standard.
• Architecture model definition. Through the establishment of working groups supported by full-time experts, an agreed architecture model was designed which provided the blueprint for the rest of the future software package.
• Procurement. The initiative selected the optimal procurement procedure and one or more providers for the software package.

This initiative enabled a considerable saving in terms of time compared to a simple sequential structure, enabling completion in one year in place of three.

Web based suite of tools supporting the trade marks and designs lifecycle.

The tool is an e-business and back office solution for IP offices, including OHIM. The envisaged software platform will be highly customisable and flexible so as to adapt to the diverse needs of the participating offices. The first tool of the suite is e-filing for trade marks. Other tools to follow; e-filing for designs, e-payments, e-opposition, e-registration, e-invalidity, e- cancellation for both trade marks and designs. With these tools the end user will be able to perform all activities connected with the trade mark or design lifecycle that pertain to the trade mark or design proprietor.

e-Learning tool providing online training for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on the importance of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).

This e-Learning tool is divided into two main sections: "Why is Intellectual Property important", where you can find information about Intellectual Property throughout the different stages of production, and "What and How to protect" where you can find information targeted towards Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), covering the different types of Intellectual Property rights.

The tool offers the same user experience in relation to general CTM/RCD queries regardless whether the users contact the participating IP office or OHIM.

The tool serves as a common IT system that the personnel at the participating offices can use to create and handle their support cases, search for up-to-date information, collaborate, share or balance the workload to achieve operational excellence.

Participating offices will be able to systematise their information service processes, obtaining the benefits of automaton such as productivity improvements or load balancing. The system will provide statistics which will allow better monitoring and decision-making. This information will support participating offices in identifying strengths and weaknesses, and planning staffing and training.

The tool will improve accuracy, consistency and speed of supplied information. Participating offices will be able to use a knowledge exchange platform with information that will allow them to find all the relevant information they require to deliver the service.

An up to date database to help enforcement agencies to better identify counterfeit goods.

The tool holds data on registered IP rights, contact information, supplementary product information and logistics. This information can be used by enforcement authorities in order to detect counterfeit products. This exchange of information is the core functionality but it is worth mentioning the next additional features:

• The tool guides the right holders in the process of filing an application for action and overcome some of the translation issues that they currently have.
• The tool is connected with several intellectual property databases (TMView, geographical indications, DesignView…) where updated information about the validity of the different rights can be found.
• The tool provides the user with an alert module.
• The tool has a repository of enforcement authorities that can be used by the different users.

With this tool enforcement authorities can see how counterfeited goods are moving within the internal market so that they can use their resources more efficiently.

The system enables end users (enforcement authorities, the OHIM Observatory, etc.) to upload the relevant data via a user friendly interface, and upload this data using electronic files ( XML, Excel, etc.).

The system also converts the data into a more harmonized format so that it can be compared and aggregated. Finally, the system will offer the users a set of possibilities of data exploitation (e.g. reports, interactive analysis and other).

This project aims at creating a common classification database and practice. The first step is the creation of a shared common database of pre-approved goods and services. Related to this is the creation of a taxonomy.

It brings a hierarchical structure to that database and is based on the Nice classification. It will be incorporated in our classification tools (e.g. Euroclass), to help our users to find the scope of protection they need in an easy way. Furthermore this project will also harmonize the approaches of the EU offices on the general indications of the Nice class headings, with a uniform interpretation on which general indications are acceptable for classification or not.

The objective of this project is to reach a common interpretation on the Nice Class Headings. Up until the start of the project 9 offices interpreted that the Nice Class Headings cover for a whole class, whereas 17 offices interpreted the Nice Class Headings as "means-what-it-says".

The new common practice in development is based on the taxonomy that has been developed in the first Convergence Project. The taxonomy structure is used to define the class scopes: A set of terms that are acceptable for classification that cover the harmonized database terms of a particular class at a given moment in time.

The objective of this project is to harmonize the different interpretations of the examination of absolute grounds for refusal as regards figurative trade marks with purely descriptive words / expressions.

The objective of this project is to harmonize the different interpretations of the scope of protection of trade marks exclusively in black, white and/or shades of grey (whether they cover any/all colours or not).