Alicante and EISOP: 30 years together

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the second largest public utility agency in Europe, employing 1,300 eurofunctionaries.

In 1994, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), also known as EUIPO, opened its office on Avenida de Aguilera in Alicante with five employees. And so the story began. To be precise, with "very low expectations of the potential of the office itself," as EUIPO executive director Joao Negrau said.

But reality has exceeded expectations, with more than 43,000 applications for trademark or industrial design protection across the EU that year alone. Almost thirty years later, its growth is unstoppable, exceeding 300,000 applications per year; its annual budget is around 500''million euros and is financed from its own operations, with a staff of 1,300 eurofunctionalists. These figures are dizzying and, as Negrau pointed out, EUIPO cannot be imagined without Alicante. "Alicante has given us the conditions for growth." And the city, he added, is also known to the agency. It is, therefore, a true love story. "EUIPO employees are ambassadors for Alicante and Spain," he said.

Declaring himself an Alicante Lisbonian, Negrau described the important challenges facing the agency. One of them is to adopt a treatment of the future common copyright in the European space,''copyright for 27 countries; a project still to be developed. He spoke about all this at the conference of the More Europe Forum, organized by the Information Club and Casa Mediterráneo. "The EU still does not have a single and common copyright to operate in a market made up of 27 countries; this is an issue to think about. "

Besides European copyright, Negrau indicated that he would launch protection for industrial geographical indications, and the task would be to adopt geographical indications in agriculture.

The fight against piracy

The conference also mentioned piracy clearly and openly to sensitize, mostly young people, to the need to protect intellectual property. "They don't believe in protection if u''year was unusual, with a 12% drop in trademark and design applications due to the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukrainian territory; therefore, EUIPO has reduced revenues and needs to be "more efficient,"' Negrau said.

At the 30th anniversary of its opening in Alicante, Negrau advocated opening EUIPO's doors to the public and further strengthening its ties with the city. And, of course, in favor of continued continuity so that the agency continues to gain weight within the European structure.