ince Council Regulation (EC) Nº 40/94 of December 20th 1993 on the Community trade mark has been substantially amended several times, the Commission has considered necessary, for the sake of clarity and rationality to be consolidated. For that reason Council has issued Regulation (EC) Nº 207/2009 of February 26th 2009, with the codified version on the Community trade mark.

The completion of European internal market which functions properly and offers conditions which are similar to those obtaining in a national market, implies not only that barriers to free movement of goods and services are removed, but also that arrangements are instituted to ensure that competition is not distorted, and that legal conditions are created to enable undertakings to adapt their activities to the scale of the Community, whether in manufacturing and distributing goods or in providing services.

For those purposes, trade marks enabling the products and services of undertakings to be distinguished by identical means throughout the entire Community, regardless of frontiers, should feature amongst the legal instruments which undertakings have at their disposal.

The rights in a Community trade mark should not be obtained otherwise than by registration, and registration should be refused in particular if the trade mark is not distinctive, if it is unlawful or if it conflicts with earlier rights.

Following provisions of Regulation (EC) Nº 207/2009, a Community trade mark will, as general principle, have a unitary character. It will have equal effect throughout the Community and will not be registered, transferred or surrendered or be the subject of a decision revoking the rights of the proprietor or declaring it invalid, nor will its use be prohibited, save in respect of the whole Community.

A Community trade mark (CTM) may consist of any signs capable of being represented graphically, particularly words, including personal names, designs, letters, numerals, the shape of goods or of their packaging, provided that such signs are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings.

For that purposes an Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), trade marks and designs, was established by previous Regulations.

A Community trade mark is to be regarded as an object of property which exists separately from the undertakings whose goods or services are designated by it. Accordingly, it should be capable of being transferred, subject to the overriding need to prevent the public being misled as a result of the transfer. It should also be capable of being charged as security in favour of a third party and of being the subject matter of licences.

Codified version of the various rules on the Community trade mark, contain the correspondences between these provisions and those contained in Regulation (EC) Nº. 207/2009. This Regulation will enter into force on April 13th, 2009. Member states will then have three years to implement the necessary measures in relation to national courts of Community trade marks as well as the formal requirements relating to the central industrial property office to which a requests for conversion are transmitted.