OFFICE FOR HARMONIZATION IN THE INTERNAL MARKET (TRADE MARKS AND DESIGNS)

Transcription

1 OFFICE FOR HARMONIZATION IN THE INTERNAL MARKET (TRADE MARKS AND DESIGNS) Administrative Board Budget Committee Alicante, 28 October 2010 CA/10/S41C/6.2/EN(O) Note for the attention of the members of the Administrative Board and the Budget Committee Subject: Cooperation Fund 1. Introduction The purpose of the note is to inform the ABBC of the current status of the Cooperation Fund, together with an insight of the future developments. 2. Background On 18 and 19 September 2008, the Administrative Board and the Budget Committee adopted the conclusion that a vast majority of Member States supported the proposal to create a Cooperation Fund (hereafter, the Fund ). This Fund would be established with an allocation of 50 Mio and would phase out once the repartition of renewal fees is in force. It should be available to the Member States' National Offices and would be used for projects closely related to harmonization and the protection, promotion and/or enforcement of trade marks and designs. For the implementation of the Fund, users should be associated and the structure of the Fund should be as light as possible and its access should be facilitated and unnecessary administrative bureaucracy avoided. The creation of the Fund formed part of the package of budgetary and legislative measures decided upon on that occasion, which included the reduction of CTM fees and the amendment of the legal framework for facilitating the transfer of CTM renewal income. The goals of the Fund are: a) modernising and streamlining National Offices systems along common lines to provide effective and efficient services; b) identifying and supporting initiatives (especially where demonstrably collaborative) principally to encourage less discrepancies in systems and practices across the EU, bringing about improvements in the way offices process trade marks and designs and thus enhancing user experience; c) assisting the competent authorities in EU Member States to better promote and enforce trade mark and design rights in their jurisdiction.

2 3. Main developments between May 2009 and October 2010 In May 2009, once the European Commission adopted the CTM fee reduction, OHIM launched the process for the establishment of the Fund. What follows is a summary of the main steps carried out since then: May 2009: elaboration of start-up documents, with the support of Gartner; June 2009: written consultation of Member States and the five NGOs participating as observers in the ABBC (hereafter observers ); July 2009: announcement of the set-up of the Fund s Management Board and the launch of the feasibility study, conducted by Gartner; September 2009: appointment of Lord Mogg, Ms Curell and Mr Vandekerckhove as OHIM special advisers, acting as chair and members of the Management Board, respectively; November 2009: adoption of the 2010 budget, including a provision of 50 Mio. to cover expenditure relating to projects of the Fund; presentation by the Management Board of the possible content of the Fund; invitation to Members States and observers to submit first proposals; February 2010: adoption by the Administrative Board and the Budget Committee of a favorable opinion on the proposed goals, principles, content and structure of the Fund, following the prior consultation to Member States and observers. The content of the program covers cooperation activities in the following fields: 1) harmonization projects, 2) software packages, 3) information services and 4) activities to facilitate the enforcement of trade marks and design rights; March 2010: invitation to Member States and observers to provide new ideas and further details on proposed initiatives; April 2010: entry into service of the Fund s Programme Manager and his team (Programme Support Office hereinafter PSO), starting the operational phase of the Fund; May 2010: approval by the Management Board of a provisional portfolio of 23 projects based on the 126 suggestions received from Member States and observers; invitation to Member States to present candidates for secondment within the Fund; June 2010: direct contact to Member States and observers to explain that the projects briefs would be built in a collaborative way, taking account of input where possible; July 2010: circulation of first draft project briefs to Member States and observers; approval by the Management Board of the first new project of the programme (TM-XML standard extension and Architecture definition); August-September 2010: continuation of the consultation and development process of project briefs; adoption by the President of the funding decision for the implementation of the Fund, following the European Commission s favourable opinion; October 2010: approval by the Management Board of the first packet of projects; communication to Member States and observers of the different project briefs for sign-up. 2/7

3 This process required deploying meaningful resources from Member States, observers and OHIM. As regards OHIM, the following resources were required so far: Action Cost Budget Line Real expenditure (paid invoices) Programme Management Board Special advisors Programme Management Board Reimbursement meeting costs Consulting (Gartner) Programme Support Office PSO- (PWC) In addition, OHIM internal efforts in this phase can be estimated in: Total = Activity Effort (man/days) Start-up (OHIM senior management) 50 Establishment and support to the PSO 40 Project management (OHIM project managers) 160 Programme Steering Group (OHIM Directors) 15 Total = Current status 3.1 General overview The Fund s programme is composed of 23 projects, clustered in different packets: Packet 1: Search Image; Seniority; Quality standards; Forecasting; DesignView; Similarity of goods and services; Common Examiner Support Tool, E-learning 1 Packet 2: Software package projects (e-filing, e-opposition, e-cancellation, e-registration, e-payment, back office); Call centre; User Satisfaction Survey; Counterfeiting Data Collection Standard; Packet 3: Common Portal; Customs Support Database; Harmonised QMS Ongoing: TMview; Common classification of goods and services; TM-XML Standard extension and architecture definition 2. 1 All packet 1 projects were approved by the Management Board on 18 October The project on forecasting has been not yet been approved. 2 Approved by the Management Board in July /7

4 Eight new projects are now in the process of implementation. Together with the two legacy projects on TMview and classification that were phased into the Fund, a total of ten projects are currently been managed in the Fund. A time plan for the completion of each project is annexed to this note. In 2011, the Fund must deliver the first visual outcomes for these new projects. While each project is specific on its aim and content, a common methodology has been used under the guidance of the PSO. During the first stage of each project, different working groups will be convened, assembling skilful experts from Member States, observers and the OHIM. Those experts will be required to specify requirements for tools, to explore the feasibility of the different options for construing standards, etc. This work is prior to the actual development of tools (e.g. DesignView), standards (e.g. quality standard) or other contents (e.g. e.learning). Upon development, deployment of the tools and standards will be conducted (e.g. tool integration, adoption of standards, etc.) According to the Management Board, a total investment of 18.2 Mio. is estimated for the completion of those ten projects. Furthermore, OHIM will need to deploy 5684 man/days of its own staff for project management, plus financially cover the Programme Support Office. Both OHIM and PSO costs will be covered outside the Fund s 50 Mio provision. 3.2 Status of the software package The software package is currently part of the ongoing projects, albeit in a limited form. An investment of 22 Mio. is estimated for developing an e-administration software package, allowing participating offices to provide a modern and uniform experience to end users. The IT architecture project approved in July constitutes the foundation and basic prerequisite for the development of the future software package. The project scope includes three work streams (standards extensions, definition of architecture model and procurement). The dependency between the rest of the package and the ongoing project is justified for the following reasons: a) the current versions of TM-XML and DS-XML cover data dissemination, publication and e-filing. These standards need to be extended in order to accommodate new requirements arising for the new software package; b) the new software is intended to be as configurable and adaptable as possible in order to accommodate the diversity of legal environments, functional requirements, and business rules of the different offices. This requires an agreed architecture model providing the blueprint for the rest of the package; c) the development of the package requires selecting the optimal procurement procedure and one or more providers for the software package. The three activities are connected but somehow independent, so they can be grouped in three separate work flows. This enables saving in terms of time compared to a simple sequential structure, enabling completion in one year instead of three. In this respect, developers are already on site for supporting the first work stream, while offices were invited to offer suitable candidates for the working groups on architecture and standard extension. The kick-off of the project is scheduled for January 2011, with a view to deliver the first results during the first semester. 4/7

5 4. Future developments 4.1 Involving IP Offices (Cooperation Fund Agreements) On 26 October, Members States and observers were informed of the next steps for the implementation of the new projects 3. They were invited to sign-up for concrete projects not later than 12 November 2010 and to offer suitable candidates for each of the expert profiles identified in the individual project briefs. Following the submission of offers, OHIM identifies, through an evaluation committee as required by its financial framework, those candidates that are best placed to meet the requirements, bearing in mind that a fair balance between the different stakeholders needs to be achieved. Once the 2011 budget is formally adopted, financial commitments will be approved by OHIM authorising officers. Upon approval, each Member State which showed an interest in participating in the defined projects will be proposed to conclude a Cooperation Fund agreement. The agreement will establish the specific annual work plan for The plan will identify the projects for which the participating office is willing to become involved in. The aim is to submit agreements to each office before 23rd December 2010, with a view to kick-off working group meetings for each project during the month of January Accelerating projects (Field 4 - enforcement) Project managers presently continue on defining and preparing the remaining project briefs in the Fund s portfolio that will be considered for launch as part of packet 2. The Management Board will be expected to endorse them in April However, the definition of project briefs has been accelerated as regards Field 4 (enforcement). The project manager is preparing project briefs for the two projects, following recent exchanges with the European Commission on this matter. 4.3 Reinforcing capabilities for delivery (Communication and resources) Communication Plan Member States and observers are kept regularly informed via a number of channels - by the Management Board, through a regular written update; by the Programme Manager via regularly scheduled calls; and by the project managers for those projects in which they are involved and or interested, via calls and s on a less formal basis. However, there is margin for improvement. On this basis, OHIM is preparing a communication plan that will be submitted to the Management Board for approval. Quarterly letters to the Heads of the IP offices and periodical newsletters will be part of such plan. 3 The information was transmitted to members of the ABBC, posted in the CF section of OAMI ONLINE ( ) and made accessible for users of the SHAREIPWIKI ( ). 5/7

6 4.3.2 Resources OHIM will continue to financially support the Programme Support Office 4, the Management Board and its own internal efforts to the programme, outside the Fund s budget. Around 20 additional resources will be deployed in order to reinforce capabilities for delivery. In terms of Member States efforts, secondment to OHIM has resulted in two SNEs associated to the Fund: - Mr Peter Hedin, from the Swedish Patent and Registration Office 5 - Mr Atanase Geavela, from the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks 6. Two more experts could be deployed. Member States remain invited to submit further candidates. 4.4 Assuring sustainability (Auditing, Benefits realisation and Maintenance) The Fund must deliver results which meet the agreed goals. In order to secure this, two measures need to be implemented: Audit plan The Programme Manager has prepared an internal audit plan to monitor the implementation of the programme in cooperation with OHIM s Internal Auditor Close-out Strategy and Maintenance plan At programme level, a close-out strategy and maintenance plan will be elaborated to steer the close-out of each project and to secure the sustainability of the different outcomes of the fund, once the programme is closed. As regards closing-out, a Benefits Advisory Group, consisting of the programme manager, project manager and the designated Key Benefits manager, will meet at least three months before the end of each project to determine medium-term sustainability requirements and appropriate actions. Once the main deliverables of a project have been completed, all relevant payments made, and the sustainability requirements identified, the project manager of each project will present the project s results to the Management Board, which will identify main lessons learned at the programme level, direct the programme manager accordingly and close out the project. The evaluation of the realization of the social benefits of the Fund will be conducted based on the Programme Manager s methodology developed on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis. As regards maintenance, the plan will cover the necessary measures to be adopted after the Cooperation Fund expires. This involves: maintenance and corrective development of the tools and standards, sustained training for new users (e.g. tool administrators, etc.), etc. Financial resources resulting from the transfer of CTM renewal income to National offices are expected to be deployed in this respect. 4 Currently, the PSO is provided under contract by the consulting firm PWC. 5 Mr Hedin has accepted the assignment of managing the two projects on enforcement. 6 Mr Geavela will enter into service on 2 nd November /7

7 Annex Time plan 7/7