INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY : COUNCIL VALIDATES OHIM'S NEW TASKS.

The EU Council adopted new rules, on 22 March, that give additional tasks to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM). A first-reading agreement on the regulation was worked out in December 2011 with the European Parliament, which endorsed it on 14 February.

The regulation aims to improve knowledge of counterfeiting prevention techniques, heighten public awareness of intellectual property rights, enhance cooperation with non-EU countries and facilitate and support action by national authorities, the private sector and EU institutions in combating infringements of intellectual property rights.

The text also brings under the OHIM umbrella the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights (formerly called European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy), charged with...