Signature of new Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the EUIPO and the CPVO

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) signed a new Service Level Agreement (SLA) which entered into force on 21 July 2021.

The EUIPO and the CPVO operate in the field of intellectual property (IP) rights with similar operational and budgetary structures, which are based on fees charged for services provided to the industry. The EUIPO manages the registration of trade marks and designs while the CPVO is in charge of plant variety rights. Both organisations are part of a network of 48 decentralised EU agencies working to implement EU policies in fields as diverse as space, medicines, education fundamental rights or IP.

The scope of the new SLA is wide and covers a series of key activities in different operational and administrative areas, such as the organisation of webinars on IP matters, the sharing of information in the context of the eSearch case-law database, as well as cooperation on data protection, internal audit, development and deployment of IT services, training, and HR selection procedures.

This new SLA shows that the EUIPO and the CPVO are ready to continue cooperating and sharing services to strengthen their strategic partnership and generate effective economies of scale while respecting one another’s autonomy and field of work.

The EUIPO and the CPVO have cooperated and shared services in the past in line with the recommendations of the Common Approach promoted by the European Commission which proved  to contribute to the increase of their efficiency and accountability. Earlier this year, an SLA was signed on EUIPO support to the CPVO Board of Appeal.

Closer partnership between EU agencies improve efficiencies, reducing administrative burden and creating services of higher quality for their respective stakeholders, including companies, Member States and EU citizens.

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