BRAND PROTECT LLP

It is now possible to apply to register a Community trade mark which is valid in all the 27 countries of the European Union.

The application is made to the Community trade mark office in Spain.  This office assesses the mark to ensure that it is capable of being a trade mark.  The Community trade mark office requests certain intellectual property offices to search their registers and advise the Community office if there are any similar marks on those national registers.  Not all national intellectual property offices participate in this exercise and the findings are only for advisory purposes.  The application is then published, for opposition purposes, in the "Official Journal".  This means that any "person" (an undertaking as well as a real person) who believes that it has prior rights to the application can register its opposition to the application.

If such an opposition is made against the application (unless the opposition is settled amicably), the relative rights of the application and opponent's "prior rights"  are assessed in a procedure which is similar to an arbitration.  In the opposition procedure, the opponent could be challenged to prove that he has used his trade mark in the EU in the last 5 years.  Although the Community trade mark office allows oral arguments, in practice, most argument is made in writing.

If all the oppositions can be overcome, the trade mark is registered for a period of 10 years.  The registration is valid in all of the 27 countries of the European Union. 

All this is quite complicated.  At BRAND PROTECT LLP we won't charge you the earth for our services.

A link to the Office for Harmonization of the Internal Market Fees list is here: http://oami.europa.eu/en/office/marque/taxes.htm