Trademark registration in European Union Trademark
Protect your brand, logo or slogan by registering a European Union Trademark. Based on this registration you will be able to take action against third parties who use a similar or identical trademark without your permission. The protection scope of a European Union trademark registration will extend to all countries of the European Union. It takes approximately 7 months, counted from the application date to obtain a European Union trademark registration. A European Union trademark registration is valid for 10 years.
Protect your trademark in all countries of the European Union with a European Union Trademark registration. The trademark specialists at Trademarkhost will gladly help you with the protection of your brand. Contact us for our free pre-registration advise.
Trademarkhost assigns you your own trademark attorney, so you will have one contact person for all your trademark related questions.
Ready to protect your trademark? Our initial research is free.
Our legal specialists will guide you through the entire trademark registration process. We conduct a trademark search to check whether the trademark is available, we register the trademark with the official authorities and if needed we carefully watch any possible infringements of your trademark rights.
Our services (search, register and watch) are all offered separately, although we highly recommend all three services if you seriously want to protect your trademark in the European Union.
Before investing in a European Union Trademark registration before investing in the registration of a EU Trademark, it is recommendable to conduct a Trademark Search. Most people think a simple online search will give you the information you need to decide whether your desired trademark is available. This online search however, will not reveal all relevant information about previously registered conflicting trademarks. Trademark Search is the best way to determine if the desired trademark is available.
Registering your trademark in the EU allows you to protect your product names, designs, logos or packaging against infringement. With a trademark registration you will be able to take action against third parties who use your trademark without your permission. If you do not register your trademark, you may even face infringement charges yourself when another party successfully registers the trademark.
With the European Union Trademark you are able to obtain trademark registration 27 countries at once. Our trademark attorneys will gladly help you with any questions you might have about registering an EU Trademark. In addition to the European Union we also offer assistance with trademark registration in more than 120 countries around the world.
Most authorities do not check whether a trademark has already been registered when someone applies for a trademark registration. This means that the identical or similar mark can be registered again and again without the competent authorities rejecting or signaling such later applications.
It is very important to carefully monitor all new possible conflicting trademark applications to be able to take action against them. Monitoring each trademark application manually is almost impossible. With Trademark Watch you benefit from our fully automated monitoring service. We will detect all conflicting later registrations and allow you to take action immediately.
As the name implies, the European Union Trademark applies to all countries within the European Union. A prior application or registration in the home country of the applicant is not required. In addition, the home country of the applicant does not have to be a member of the European Union either.
Members of the European Union are:
 Austria |
 Germany |
 Netherlands |
 Belgium |
 Greece |
 Poland |
 Bulgaria |
 Hungary |
 Portugal |
 Cyprus |
 Ireland |
 Romania |
 Czech Republic |
 Italy |
 Slovakia |
 Denmark |
 Latvia |
 Slovenia |
 Estonia |
 Lithuania |
 Spain |
 Finland |
 Luxembourg |
 Sweden |
 France |
 Malta |
 United Kingdom |
A European Union trademark registration is valid in the following overseas departments as well: Guadeloupe (GP), Martinique (MQ), Guyana (GF), and Réunion (RE).
Based on your European Union trademark registration you will be able to act against trademark infringers in all 27member of the European Union.
Our trademark attorneys will gladly answer any questions you might have. Our initial pre-registration advice including identical trademarksearch is always free of charge.
A trademark is a symbol, design, word or any other device that identifies and distinguishes products and services in the marketplace. Your trademark can become your company’s most valuable asset. Consumers will identify your firm with your chosen trademark. Insufficient protection of this trademark in the European Union can have major consequences for your company.
A European Trademark ensures exclusive rights to a specific brand for the covered goods and services . One can also authorize someone else to use the trademark in return for payment.
“I was really satisfied with the service and activity of Trademarkhost on performing a trademark search and on providing recommendations and estimations.”
- R. Torkelund, Luxemburg
Anything that distinguishes your product and is capable of graphic representation can be registered as a trademark. A few examples are:
To protect your business in the best way possible, you should consider registering more than one trademark. For instance, you can register your company name and specific product name or logo as trademark trademark on your company’s slogan and its logo. Our trademark attorneys will gladly advise you about all options that may be relevant for your company and its potential trademarks.
A trademark application has to be filed at the European Union Intellectual Property office (EUIPO). A simple signed power of attorney is required. Foreign applicants do not need a domestic registration.
The application process includes an official search for identical or similar trademarks. It takes approximately 7 months from first filing to registration. The trademark is published in the “Trademarks Bulletin” before registration. It is possible to file an opposition against the trademark registration at a court within 3 months from the date of publication.
A trademark registration in the European Union is valid for 10 years and starts at the day of registration. The registration is renewable for periods of 10 years.
When you apply for a an European Union Trademark registration, you have to specify the classes for which your trademark will be registered for. Classes are the products and services that will be associated with your trademark. The International Classification of Nice is the system that is in place for grouping products and services. This system uses 45 classes, 34 for products and 11 for services. The European Union Trademark only offers protection within the chosen classes at the time of registration. This allows two identical trademarks to coexist in different classes. Before filing the trademark application we will assist you in determining the correct classes for your trademark application.
Not sure what classes apply to your trademark? Ask for our opinion!
We offer pre-registration opinion and identical search. Free of charge!
In general, a trademark has to be registered in each individual country where you want the trademark protection to apply. However, some regions have signed treaties to make it possible to register a trademark in multiple countries at once. The European Union has one of these treaties in place. The European Trademark applies to all countries within the European Union.
European Trademarks are registered at the EUIPO. As stated before, this office will not actively check for existing trademarks when someone tries to register its European Union Trademark. Therefore, problems can occur when a third party registers a similar trademark. Always make sure you have a system in place to check for future trademark applications. The trademark attorneys at Trademarkhost will gladly help you with the monitoring of similar trademark applications.
Until the 233rd of March 2016, the European Union Trademark was known as the Community Trade Mark (CTM Trademark). This trademark was first introduced in 1994 and the first applications were filed on the 1st of April 1996. The Community Trademark was administered by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Mark (OHIM). The OHIM changed its name to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPIO) when the name of the Community Trademark changed to European Union Trademark.
I’ve chosen Trademarkhost as our worldwide trademark representative because they always gave me immediate and professional response with regard to all my questions.
- M. Marina - INNOTEC, Moscow
Third parties from any EU country can file an opposition against the registration of your trademark application if they believe that you should not obtain trademark registration in the European Union When an existing trademark in one or several European countries is causing problems an EU trademark can be converted into several national applications. This alternative excludes the countries that are causing problems with the EU trademark. This process is rather complicated, knowledge of the rules in numerous countries is required. The attorneys at Trademarkhost will advise you when applying for a trademark in a single European Country, several European countries or the European Union Trademark. Do you want to know more about our services or do you have any questions? Contact us directly on: +31 - 88 130 9400 or let us call you back.
Our trademark attorneys will gladly help you with any questions you might have regarding European Trademark. Contact us directly or let us call you back.
Trademark Portfolio management
Trademark Renewals
Handling Trademark refusals
Handling Trademark oppositions
Trademark Infringement
and more
Trademarkhost
Fascinatio Boulevard 216-220
3065 WB Rotterdam
The Netherlands
0031 (0) 85 48 23 864
info@trademarkhost.com
