Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/05/12

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Subject: [Leica] civil servant (WAS: Nathan's PAW 18: dogs, señoritas, fish, light and shadow)
From: photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 07:06:51 +0200
References: <450ECB80-6AB2-434B-B528-C7479FAF17FA@frozenlight.eu> <4A0881EF.6040602@wanadoo.nl> <200905112242.BQB12685@rg5.comporium.net> <E1604752-93CC-40FF-9610-02E545F71558@ralgo.nl>

Well, a few facts about the EU agency where I work:

- the volume of business (i.e. the number of Community Trade Marks  
registered per year) has doubled in the past 5-6 years
- the speed (the time from application to registration) has been  
greatly reduced during the same period
- the number of staff has remained constant
- our agency started operations in April 1996. Aside from 1996 and  
1997, when the agency was in its startup phase and needed a subsidy  
from Brussels, it has made a profit every year since then. In 2008 it  
was 60 million Euro (on a turnover of approximately 200 million Euro).  
The surplus does not go into the general EU budget, it just  
accumulates here. What to do with that pile of cash is one of our big  
problems (wasting it by hiring more people or investing in grand  
projects is not an option that our management is willing to entertain,  
and rightly so).
- to prevent/reduce future surplusses, we have cut the fees we charge  
to register a trademark by more than 40%, effective 1 May 2009.

See more here:
http://oami.europa.eu/ows/rw/pages/index.en.do

So yes, some of us civil servants do actually work. But work is  
admittedly more pleasant when you have a cafeteria on the shores of  
the Mediterranean :-)

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.nathanfoto.com

Books: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/search?search=wajsman&x=0&y=0
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog



On May 13, 2009, at 12:37 AM, bruce golding wrote:

> he's a civil servant now!
>
> you know how that works ..........
>
> b.
>
> On 12-mei-2009, at 0:42, Tina Manley wrote:
>
>> At 03:52 PM 5/11/2009, you wrote:
>>> GNathan Wajsman wrote:
>>>> ...in other words, one of my mixed weeks. But all the elements  
>>>> mentioned in the subject line are there:
>>>> http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws/?page_id=238
>>>> As always, comments and critique are welcome and appreciated.
>>>> Nathan
>>
>> The cafeteria at your office is my favorite.  How does anybody ever  
>> get any work done!!
>>
>> Tina
>>
>> Tina Manley
>> www.tinamanley.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



In reply to: Message from photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman) ([Leica] IMG: Nathan's PAW 18: dogs, señoritas, fish, light and shadow)
Message from michiel.fokkema at wanadoo.nl (Michiel Fokkema) ([Leica] IMG: Nathan's PAW 18: dogs, señoritas, fish, light and shadow)
Message from images at comporium.net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] IMG: Nathan's PAW 18: dogs, seño ritas, fish, light and shadow)
Message from leica at ralgo.nl (bruce golding) ([Leica] IMG: Nathan's PAW 18: dogs, seño ritas, fish, light and shadow)