What is an EU trademark?
The EU trademark is a trademark system carried out among member states of the EU in accordance with the "Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market(OHIM)" enacted in 1993. The amendments to the “EU Trademark Regulation” were announced in 2015, which came into effect on March 23, 2016. OHIM was renamed the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), and the Community trademark was renamed European Union trademark.
Features of EU trademark
The application fee is low, you only need to apply for registration once;
Protection concentration
After registration, it is only necessary to provide the trademark use certificate in any member country, which is regarded as the use in the whole EU;
The EU trademark that has been obtained that could be automatically extended to newly joined Member States in the future.
Member States of the EU Trademark
United Kingdom※1, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland , Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and other European countries.
★The main European countries, only Switzerland and Norway, have not joined the EU trademark.
Time required for EU trademark application
The time for successful registration of the EU trademark is about 5-6 months.
The official receipt will be received in about 7 days, and will be announced for 3 months after examination. A trademark registration is valid for 10 years from the date of application.
Materials required for filing of EU trademark
1. Individual application: ID card copy with front and back.
Company application: Copy of certificate of incorporation
2. Applicant's name and address with Chinese and English.
3. A clear graphical representation of the trademark
4. Classes of trademark applications and goods / services(※According to Nice Classification)
EU trademark application process
Formal examination
According to whether the application materials are complete, whether to claim priority and whether the trademark could be used as a representative symbol to examination.
If there is a need to make corrections, an official notice will be issued to notify the applicant to make corrections,
Overdue EUIPO will refuse to accept the case.
Subsequently, EUIPO will send the application materials to the EU Translation Center for translation for subsequent disclosure and retrieval procedures (official languages: English, French, German, Spanish or Italian).
Search report
The search department searches and sends the trademark search report based on the EU trademark database to the applicant, and sends the information of the application to the trademark owner of the similar trademark.
Since March 10, 2008, the national search reports of each Member State have become selective. Only when the applicant requests and pays additional fees, EUIPO will send the trademark search report of the applicant in each member country.
As for the Member States that provide this service include Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
However, the search report on the EU trademark database and the sending of monitoring letters will continue, and the fee has been included in the application fee.
Monitoring letter
When similar EU trademarks are found during the application process, EUIPO will also send a "monitoring letter" to the trademark owners of the previous cases while sending the trademark search report.
Although the European Union will issue a “monitoring letter” to notify the trademark owner of the previous case, it is only “for reference”.
In other words, not being retrieved means that there will be a conflict between the two trademarks.
Announcement
After sending the trademark search report based on the EU trademark database to the applicant, the trademark application will be announced in the official gazette.
Anyone can object to the trademark as long as the trademark has a reason for not obtaining registration during the three-month period of the trademark announcement.
Registration
If no objection by a third party(Or the objection is not established), a registration certificate will be issued by EUIPO.
