Registering your trademark in the United Kingdom does not protect it elsewhere in the European Community (EC). To protect your trademark throughout the EC, you can apply for a community trademark via the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market. To get protection in individual EC countries, you must make a separate application to each country.
You can use your UK trademark certificate of registration to claim priority when applying in the EC within 6 months of your UK application date. This means that your later application is treated as if you applied on the same date as in the UK.
It is possible to register a trademark in all of the countries of the European Union with one application via the Community Trademark System. Upon registration of a trademark with the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market the trademark will be registered indivisibly across all of the European Union member states. The rules and law for the registration of a community trademark are similar to those of the United Kingdom as described above.
This system did not replace the pre-existing national systems of trademark registration, and so the two systems operate in parallel; it is, therefore, still possible to register a trademark in each single country within the European Union, but would be a more involved and costly process if you require your trademark to be registered in more than three member states.
The main advantages of registering a trademark with the Community Trademark system are as follows: -
Only one application and registration fee are necessary;
The community trademark engenders ownership rights in all member states of the European Union;
The registration identifies the origin of the goods and services, guarantees consistent quality through evidence of the company's commitment to the consumer, and as a form of communication is a basis for publicity and advertising;
The community trademark may be used as a manufacturer's mark, a mark for goods of a trading company, a service mark, or take the form of a collective trademark;
The average cost of an application for a community trademark is much less than filing separate national applications to individual member states the community trademark covers a market which consists of more than 350 million consumers.
The 25 member states of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
One disadvantage of using the Community Trademark System as opposed to registering with individual member states is that the scope of coverage also gives rise to a greater possibility of infringement upon pre-registered trademarks and therefore the possibility of objections to your trademark. The cost benefits of the community trademark generally only start to take effect where a trademark registration is required in more than three of the European Union member states. If a company intends to trade in only a few European countries, it may be preferable to make individual national applications.
Upon a successful application, a trademark is registered, & protected under law, for a period of ten years. The community trademark registration can be renewed indefinitely.
Coddan can register a community trademark on your behalf, which provides legal protection for your trademark in all of the European Union member states.
About the EU trademark registration service
When you register a trademark in EU the process is completed through the EU Patent Office, giving the registrant far wider protection and making any infringement much easier to deal with.
There are two stages involved in the process – a formal trademark search and the full trademark application. The formal search will investigate further to ascertain if there are any existing identical or similar trademarks registered in the same or similar Class of goods/services or whether there is any reason why the trademark might be unacceptable under the terms of the Trademarks Act 1994 Section 3.
The application stage generally takes around eleven months to complete. Once a trademark application has been accepted by the Patent Office, it will be advertised in the Trademarks Journal, which is published every Friday on the Patent Office web site.
The Journal advertisement will last for a period of three months, which allows any interested parties with justifiable cause to oppose the registration of a trademark.
Opposition is the legal procedure, which allows anyone to try and stop the registration of a trademark. They may only do this by filing the appropriate documents with the Patent Office.
The government fee for the trade mark registration is included in the price of this option.
The registration process includes the following: -
Trademark search conducted with the Patent Office, which takes approximately two to three weeks.
Application to register a trademark with the Patent Office in one class. Additional classes are charged at £250.00 per class (the government fee for an additional class is included in the price of this option).
The application can take approximately 11 months if no objections are raised.
Forwarding of a Trademark Certificate upon registration.
Ten years registration upon successful application.
We will ensure that you are kept informed of the status of your trademark application during the process.
