European Trademark Registration

A Community or European Trademark means any graphic mark, consisting in particular of words, including names, drawings, letters, numbers, product shapes or packaging, provided that such marks may be, by their nature, distinguish the products or services of a company from the products or services of other companies registered in the European Trademark Register of the European Intellectual Property Office, based in Alicante, Spain.

The registration of a Community or European Trademark is done with an application in all the Member States of the European Union. The European Union Trademark is registered with an application and with a one-time payment of a European registration fee throughout the European Union, and therefore in Greece. By securing the Community Trademark, it now has a printed imprint of the exclusive protection rights, easily negotiable and tradable.

The benefits of registering a Community trade mark

• A single electronic filing, in one language, applies to all EU Member States.
• The Community trade mark confers exclusive rights on the owner of the trade mark in all existing and future Member States of the European Union at low cost.
• The trademark can be registered in a market of about 500 million consumers.
• The EU trademark is valid for 10 years and can be renewed indefinitely, for a period of 10 years each time it is renewed.

The peculiarities of the registration of a Community trade mark are the following:

1. its acquisition, its operation, the powers that derive from it, its protection, its expiration, are all regulated uniformly by the Community Regulation and not by the respective national law.
2. It automatically produces its uniform results throughout the territory of the European Community, without the possibility of excluding a Member State. That is to say, the proprietor of a Community trade mark cannot renounce the trade mark in respect of a single Member State.
3. A Community trade mark may coexist with an earlier national trade mark if the national trade mark holders did not react to the registration of the Community trade mark.

The Community trade mark shall be registered with an application in any official language of the European Union at the European Intellectual Property Office. The registration process consists of a series of sub-steps, which are formally followed by the Community Commission, and its protection is granted from the date of publication of the trade mark registration in the Community trade mark register.

I. Legal review for availability of a Community trade mark

Before applying for a Community trade mark, it is essential that a thorough legal review be carried out to verify whether the European Union trade mark is available for registration. As the principle of time priority applies to all trademarks, including Community trade marks, the Community trade mark sought by the applicant should not sound like / conceptually similar to an earlier European or non-European trade mark, when of course it relates to same product / service. Here it is crucial to note that the legal availability check should be performed by an experienced trademark attorney at all levels of trademark protection, i.e. national, European and international (if internationally registered for European countries), so as not to raise objections from previous proprietors of similar national or international trademarks.

ΙΙ. Cost of a Community trade mark

There are three types of Community trade marks: individual marks, certification marks and collective marks.

An individual trademark distinguishes the products and services of a particular company from the products and services of another company. However, this does not mean that the trademark must belong to a single person: the trademarks may belong to one or more legal or natural persons. This means that there are more applicants. The basic fee for the application of an individual mark starts from 850.00 Euros.

Collective trademarks distinguish the products and services of a group of companies or members of an association from the products and services of their competitors. Collective trademarks can be used to build consumer confidence in the products or services provided under the collective mark. They are very often used to identify products that have a certain feature in common. Only associations of manufacturers, producers, service providers or traders, as well as legal persons under public law, can apply for a collective mark. The fee of the application for registration of a collective mark is 1,500.00 Euros.

Certification marks have been introduced in EUIPO since 1 October 2017. Certification marks are a new type of mark at EU level, although they have been in national systems for several years. Certification marks indicate that the products or services meet the certification requirements of a certification body or organization; they are controlled quality signs. Any natural or legal person, including bodies, authorities and bodies governed by public law, can apply for EU certification marks provided that such person is not engaged in a business involving the provision of the type of products or services being certified. The fee for the application for registration of a certification mark is 1,500.00 Euros.

The amount of the individual Community trade mark fee is EUR 850 for the first class, EUR +50 for the second class and EUR +150 for each subsequent class except the first two (not subject to VAT due to intra-Community trade) and automatically applies to all Member States members of the European Union. The above fees are deposited directly into the account of the European Intellectual Property Office abroad.