Trademark in the EU. The most frequently asked questions.
Trademark registration in the European Union or CTM (Community Trademark) allows, by a single procedure and cost, to register a trademark in the 28 actual States of the EU:
Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom , Czech Republic, Romania and Sweden.
One of the most frequently asked questions is about the scope of the registration in the overseas regions. Let’s clarify. Community trademark registration is valid in the following regions:
- Denmark: excluded Greenland and the Faroe Islands. So it is necessary to protect through a national trademark in Denmark.
- Spain: Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla included.
- France: including overseas departments (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion, Guyana). However, do not include the following territories: New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, French Polynesia, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Mayotte. In those regions, it will be necessary a French trademark registration in order to be protected
- Portugal: Azores and Madeira included.
- UK: included Gibraltar. Channel Islands and the Isle of Man that require protection through a national trademark in the UK are not included.
Trademark in the EU. The process
It is common to ask about the duration of the processing of a trademark in the European Union. In this regard, note that nowadays it is an agile administrative process, ruled by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) located in Alicante (Spain) and, if no objections arise, has an average processing time of 6 months. The processing is done in the official language of the Member State filing and one of three official: English, French or German, and consists of the following steps:
- Filing of the application.
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