Community Trademark

The Community Trademark: features, rights, procedure, search, examination costs.The official fees have been reduced by 40% last May 2009.

The Community Trademark (CTM) is a single industrial property right, that is valid for all EU countries: (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Hungary).

The CTM coexists with the national trademarks in the member States, like the European Patent with the national patents in the member States of the European Patent Convention.

However, the CTM is becoming more and more competitive both by costs of registration and renewal and for the time, which passes from the CTM application to the CTM registration, that is at present of about 10 months, unless the CTM application is opposed.

The CTM member States :

We can represent you as professional representatives, before the OHIM (the Community Office) to file a Community trademark (CTM) application, to defend you in case of oppositions to the registration of your CTM application, in case of appeals or of cancellation proceedings against your CTM registration.
 

In the case of eventual enlargement (Croatia, Macedonia, Iceland and maybe Turkey), there will be no need to pay additional taxes: the CTM will extend its protection to new countries without further obligations or additional cost.

The registration fee (tax) of a CTM has been reduced by 40% from May 2009 by the Office for Community (OHIM).

Protection

The protection of the Community trade lasts 10 years from the date of filing and may be renewed indefinitely every ten-year period, paying the appropriate renewal fee.

Which are the advantages of a CTM registration ?

- To obtain, with a single procedure and the payment of a single fee, an exclusive right for all 27 EU countries, with savings in time and money;

- To use the CTM in one part only of European Union countries, avoiding the cancellation in the event of non-use in other countries;

- To prevent registration and use in the European Union of subsequent, community or national trademarks, which are identical or similar to the registered one, for identical or similar products;

-It is the first step for those who expected a 'expansion of its business in other countries of the European Union.

Rights

The proprietor of a CTM has the exclusive right to use the registered mark.

He can prohibit others from using a sign identical or similar, subsequent to the filing of Community trade mark registered for identical or similar goods to the registered ones.

This practice covers every aspect of production and distribution (import, export, marketing, advertising in any media).

Which are the signs to register?

Any signs, which can be represented graphically and it is are able to distinguish a product or service from those of the competitors, can be registered as trademark.

This can consist, for example, of words, drawings, letters, numbers, hardly the form of the product; it can consist also of the product package, with drawings and writings, (to protect stronger the product from the counterfeiting).

Registration procedure

Application.

The procedure for registration of the CTM is the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), based in Alicante, Spain.

Examination-Search-Publication.

The Office performs only an examination to verify that, under the regulation, if the trademark can be registered as such.

If the examination is not successful, the Office issues an objection to registration, which you can reply to with reasoned statement.

If the reply is not accepted, the refusal becomes final and the mark is rejected. Otherwise, the registration process continues.

The Office, after the deposit, performs a search only among the earlier identical or similar CTMs  and informs the proprietors of the marks, mentioned in the search report, that the new CTM will be published.

At the request of the applicant, paying an extra fee, he can also receive national search reports of some EU member states.

After the execution of search, the OHIM will publish the application on the CTM Bulletin.

Possible opposition.

Within three months from the publication, the owners of identical or similar earlier trademark, filed or registered in the European Union, may file an opposition to the registration of the CTM application.

Registration.

In the absence of opposition or if it is solved favorably, the Office registers the trademark for the claimed goods and services and issues a registration certificate.

The cost of registering a Community trademark is reduced to zero, as regards the official fees: the fee for registration of Community trademark has been reduced to this amount in May 2009.

Possible Appeals

Boards of Appeal are inside the OHIM: one can file a notice of appeal, to contest decisions on examination of a CTM,  on oppositions or other decisions of first instance.

Decisions on Community trade marks, issued by the Board of Appeal may be appealed in third and fourth degree, before the Court of First Instance and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.   

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