Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 352: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the current processing time for a trade mark; the steps being taken to expedite this process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45904/10]

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The processing time for a Trade Mark depends on the circumstances of each individual application. The Patents Office conducts examination of applications on absolute and relative grounds, and in doing so the Office must take into account the legislation regarding registrability of Trade Marks as well as how the application would impact on all earlier rights (existing national and Community Trade Marks).

When the Patents Office is satisfied that the application is in order it will be accepted for registration and published in the Office's Official fortnightly Journal in accordance with legislative requirements. Following such publication there is a period of three months, again defined by legislation, to allow third parties to raise an opposition to registration. If no oppositions are filed the Applicant is requested to pay the registration fee and on receipt of same the Trade Mark is registered. The total time taken, from application to registration, for cases where no office objections or third party oppositions are made, is typically six months.

Cases where objections to registration are taken by the Patents Office or oppositions are filed by third parties can take much longer to resolve.

The following table details the average time taken, since 1st January 2007, by the Patents Office to accept Trade Marks for registration.

As can be seen from the above the Patents Office has reduced significantly the time taken in recent years to process Trade Mark applications. Notwithstanding this, the Patents Office continues to streamline its processes and to eliminate administrative inefficiencies by utilising state-of-the-art IT systems and services that have already seen many manual processes replaced by automated procedures.

Ireland's governing legislation is in line with international best practice and defines distinct periods of time, totalling fifteen weeks, which must be allowed for certain actions to take place.