The office at Alicante
Where the EU trade mark physically lives and what the building's habits tell a reader.
A journal kept at the assay bench
The boat cruise years
Every spring, a circle of Munich attorneys hired a boat at the INTA meeting and quizzed the world's trade mark people over the water.
A reader's journal on the marks a community shares: collective marks, certification seals, appellations of origin and the story of Europe's old Community Trade Mark, assayed piece by piece against the public record.
The bench before opening hour, punches already laid out Photograph: June Halloran
latest
Struck this season
The hallmark row
Why the oldest living certification mark is struck with a punch, not printed.
How a mark gets entered
The filing path in order, for readers who want to see the machine before trusting it.
Champagne and the map of names
What a geographical indication is, read through the name that fought longest for it.
The Woolmark story
How the modern certification mark was invented: a levy, a competition and a symbol.
What opposition means
How the opposition window works, and why silence in it counts as consent.
One mark, twenty-seven counters
How the Community Trade Mark worked and why its first morning still matters.
The punches
The four punches
The bench keeps four punches, busiest first.
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the books where shared marks are kept: the CTM story, the office at Alicante, oppositions and renewals
One punch of the four · 5 pieces -
certification marks, hallmarks and standards: the sign that vouches for quality
One punch of the four · 3 pieces -
appellations, geographical indications and protected names of food and drink
One punch of the four · 3 pieces -
the associations, congresses and fairs where the marks world meets
One punch of the four · 3 pieces
The register
The boat cruise years
Every spring, a circle of Munich attorneys hired a boat at the INTA meeting and quizzed the world
The register
Ten thousand nametags
The INTA annual meeting gathers more trade mark people than any event on earth. What the world
The register
The associations that keep a name
A collective mark belongs to an association and is carried by its members: the sign of belonging is the oldest shared mark.
The tray empties
The rest of the pieces
Every piece on the tray, latest struck first.
Assayed against
Assayed against the public record
Every piece is checked against the offices and organisations that keep the record: named, linked, never anonymous.
- WIPOthe world office: Madrid, Lisbon and the treaty shelf
- EUIPOAlicante, keeper of the EU trade mark since the CTM days
- USPTOthe American register and its public search room
- INTAthe association whose annual meeting the old initiative sailed beside
- EU quality schemesthe register of appellations, PDO and PGI
The bench by letter
The bench by letter
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- H
- O
- T
The register
The boat cruise years
Every spring, a circle of Munich attorneys hired a boat at the INTA meeting and quizzed the world
The register
The office at Alicante
EUIPO in Alicante keeps the EU trade mark: towers over the marina, five working languages, and a public register anyone may read.
The register
The hallmark row
Inside every British silver ring runs a row of tiny punched shields: seven centuries of assay marks, the oldest certification system still struck by hand.
The register
The label that answers for coffee
The FAIRTRADE mark turned a supply chain into a signature: how a certification label promises a standard the shopper cannot see.
The register
The parmesan you cannot copy
Parmigiano Reggiano spells its name in pin-dots on every wheel, and Europe
The register
Ten thousand nametags
The INTA annual meeting gathers more trade mark people than any event on earth. What the world
The register
The season when GIs get traded
Geographical names are now a chapter in every trade deal: feta in Canada, prosecco in Asia. When the map becomes a bargaining chip.
The register
The associations that keep a name
A collective mark belongs to an association and is carried by its members: the sign of belonging is the oldest shared mark.
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From other benches
Sources elsewhere
A short list of other sites our editors find useful or instructive.
The register
a drawer of legal kits
On the same tray sits , where the paperwork behind a stamp is kept in order for readers who like their forms sorted.
The register
a desk that reads trade flows
Beside the bench works , where the names on the labels turn back into cargo, routes and numbers.
The register
a market by the water
Down the row stands , where the stallholders' own names still matter more to a buyer than any printed brand.
The register
a brewery that signs its barrels
Across the aisle, keeps its own tally, since a house mark burned into a cask is the oldest certification going.
The register
a guide to the markers
And for the passages between the benches there is , for every sign that tells a traveller where the channel runs.