Durán-Corretjer SLP

"Our firm has a qualified team of Industrial Property Attorneys, Community Trade Mark attorneys and lawyers who are experts in the field of distinctive signs and have a broad experience in providing advice, preparing, filing, prosecuting and defending Community trade mark applications."

1.  INTRODUCTION.
The Community Trade Mark enables the protection of a mark to be obtained simultaneously for the 27 countries of the European Union, by means of a single application, procedure, grant and maintenance before the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM).

2.  DESIGNATED COUNTRIES.
The current 27 Member States of the European Union are the following:

* These three countries have a joint Trade Mark law under Benelux Trade Marks.

3. ADVANTAGES OF THE COMMUNITY TRADE MARK.
Amongst others, the Community Trade Mark has the following advantages:

• The Community Trade Mark has its origin in a single application, which implies a lower cost regarding the application itself, as well as the processing, management, maintenance and renewal of the registration.

• Proceedings before OHIM are carried out in only one of the five official languages of the Office, which are Spanish, English, French, German and Italian.

• Possibility of claiming seniority of nationally registered trade marks in the European Union that are identical to the Community Trade Mark, in order to consolidate in the Community Trade Mark all earlier rights purporting to the same mark.

• In cases of Community Trade Mark infringement, it is possible to bring infringement proceedings before a single competent Community Trade Mark Court whose decisions are enforceable in all Member States of the European Union, if the claim is filed in the country of the defendant.

 4.  PROSECUTION

•  Filing of Community Trade Mark application

• Examination with respect to formal requirements.

• Substantive Examination (absolute grounds).

• Search report on prior trade marks (obligatory for earlier Community trade marks, optional for earlier national trade marks)

• Publication

• Oppositions and/or objections from third parties

• Grant. Rejection. Appeals.

5.  TERM OF PROTECTION.  
The term of protection for a Community Trade Mark is 10 years, from the date of filing the application, renewable for identical periods, indefinitely.

Request information on International Trade Mark Protection