OHIM expert to help Kosovo

"OHIM to assist on design guidelines in Kosovo" is the hot news from sunny Alicante, seat of the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market.  According to Europe's favourite IP office,

"An OHIM expert will be helping the Kosovo IP Office to draft new guidelines for the examination and registration of industrial designs. [Great -- but do we get a say in which OHIM expert gets sent there?]

The assistance, during March and April this year, forms part of an EU-funded project managed by the European Patent Office and follows a similar collaboration with the Turkish Patent Institute".

For the record, the Kosovo IP Office was established in 2007 and since then has received over 20,000 applications for trade marks, patents and industrial designs.

New Kosovo design law

Thanks to Petosevic for news of updated Kosovo design and trade mark laws.  A link to their item is here:  According to them, "The new Law on Industrial Design will replace the 2005 Law No. 2005/02-L45, while the new Law on Trademarks will replace the 2006 Law No. 2006/02-L54, currently in force in Kosovo."
Recent news indicates that relations between Kosovo and other parts of former Yugoslavia are stabilising.  Adoption of new IP regime is often an early indicator of moves towards ultimate EU membership.  Will the Union some day welcome Islamic European states?  Personally I would expect this to increase the stability of the region, though Turkey's candidature has proven problematic in the past.