Trademark applicants in Europe could see fees slashed by more than one-third, after a deal was struck this weekend to resolve the long-standing problem of hundreds of millions of euros in unwanted surpluses at the European trademark office.

The Alicante-based office - formally known as the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, or OHIM - has accumulated over Euros300m in spare funds, thanks largely to the greater-than-expected popularity of the ”community trademark”, an intellectual property right covering the EU.