Registers
EUIPO (merkenregister)
The EUIPO is the European Union agency in Alicante that administers the EU trade mark, the registered EU design and EU geographical indications for craft and industrial products. Under article 111 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 the Office keeps and updates a register of EU trade marks, containing among other things the filing date, the file number, the publication date of the application and the details of the applicant and representative. Applications and register entries are published in the EU Trade Marks Bulletin; the data can be consulted online through eSearch plus and TMview.
Go to the publisher’s websiteWhich products consult this source
LEO — Direct consultation
The source is consulted directly while the work is being done.
Availability depends on your organisation’s configuration and access rights.
What this source does not give you
The register covers EU trade marks and EU designs, and therefore not national or Benelux marks: in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg those are registered with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property and count in EU trade mark law as independent earlier rights. Files of applications that have not yet been published can moreover only be inspected with the applicant's consent.
Legal domains for which LEO consults this source
Dutch legal domains; each link opens the domain page on leo.prudai.com.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the EUIPO register also cover Benelux marks?
- No, and the distinction is anchored in the regulation itself. Article 8(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 lists as earlier trade marks, alongside EU trade marks, expressly 'trade marks registered in a Member State or, in the case of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property'. A Benelux mark is therefore an independent right that can block an EU trade mark application without appearing in the EUIPO register. A clearance search that looks only at the EU register is consequently incomplete; the EUIPO cooperates with national offices and the Benelux Office on joint search databases, and that is what TMview brings together.
- What does it mean that an EU trade mark 'has a unitary character'?
- Article 1(2) of the regulation puts it this way: the EU trade mark has a unitary character and has equal effect throughout the Union. It may only be registered, transferred, surrendered, revoked or declared invalid, and its use prohibited, in respect of the whole Union, save as otherwise provided in the regulation. That is both the strength and the vulnerability of the right: one successful opposition or invalidity action based on an earlier right in a single member state affects the mark across the whole Union. Decisions on validity and infringement therefore have effect throughout the Union, so as to avoid conflicting rulings and damage to the unitary character.
- How long does an EU trade mark last and how does renewal work?
- Registration is for ten years from the filing date of the application and may be renewed for further ten-year periods. The Office notifies the proprietor and every holder of a registered right in the mark at least six months before expiry, but failure to give that notice does not incur liability for the Office and does not affect the expiry of the registration. The renewal request must be filed within the six months preceding expiry and the fees paid within that period; after that there is a further six-month period, provided a surcharge for late payment or late filing is paid.
- Until when can someone oppose an application?
- Within three months of the date on which the application was published. That publication follows from article 44 of the regulation: where the conditions are met and the application has not been refused, it is published for the purposes of the opposition period. Opposition may be brought, among others, by proprietors of earlier trade marks within the meaning of article 8(2) and by licensees authorised by them, and by proprietors of other signs referred to in article 8 or of rights they can assert under national law. For trade mark watching, therefore, the publication date is when the clock starts, not the registration date.
- Can a registered EU trade mark still fall away?
- Yes. Article 58 of the regulation lists the grounds for revocation, which can be raised on application to the Office or by counterclaim in infringement proceedings. The best known is lack of genuine use: where within a continuous period of five years the mark has not been put to genuine use in the Union in connection with the goods or services for which it is registered, and there are no proper reasons for non-use. The right is also revoked where, in consequence of acts or inactivity of the proprietor, the mark has become the common name in the trade for the product or service, or where as a result of the use made of it the mark is liable to mislead the public, for instance as to the nature, quality or geographical origin of those goods or services. A register entry is therefore not the end of the road.