Costa Rica Euipos Tender

A Technical Workshop on Tools and Common Practices was held in San Jos Costa Rica on 8-12 July 2019 with the participation of the intellectual property offices of Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic El Salvador Guatemala and Honduras.The workshop organised under the framework of the EUIPOs international cooperation activities particularly the bilateral cooperation with non-EU countries and the IP KEY Latin America project focused on extending the benefits of the tools and practices developed under the European Union Intellectual Property Network EUIPN.The workshop facilitated a multilateral and collaborative platform with non-EU industrial property offices allowing the exchange of information and experiences related to the work of the EUIPN including tools and databases such as TMclass DesignClass the Harmonised Goods and Services Database HDB the Harmonised Product Indications Database HDBPI and the trade mark and design related common practices CP3 CP4 CP5 and CP6.Experts from the participating non-EU offices exchanged information knowledge and experiences with experts from the EUIPO the Spanish Patent and Trade Mark Office OEPM and the National Institute for the Defence of Free Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property INDECOPI.This interaction helped to identify tools and databases of interest for the participating Offices and define future joint actions for implementation both for their benefit and for the productivity of the sector in the region. It has also provided for the exchange of information concerning the management of trade mark and design practices by the participating offices identifying similarities with the principles on which the EUIPNs common practices are based.The EUIPOs 2020 vision is to deliver high-quality products and services to trade mark and design users which requires expanding its focus to the international arena as provisioned in the Strategic Plan 2020 SP2020. Line of Action 4 of the SP2020 includes the Offices strategy to extend the benefits of the tools and practices developed by the EUIPN beyond the borders of the EU in the interest of users particularly SMEs.As part of this strategy since 2017 EUIPO has hosted various technical workshops with non-EU IP offices in Latin America Africa Asia and Oceania thus increasing the outreach of the Networks tools and practices globally.