The Community Trademark
The Community trademark, governed by the Regulation n. 40/94 of the European Union Council, permits to obtain, with a single application, a trademark valid all over the territory of the European Community (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia), which means that this trademark can be registered, transferred, withdrawn, invalidated or expired and its use can be prevented only for the whole Community.
[Legitimate applicants]
The Community trademarks may be applied for not only by any nationals having the citizenship, or the residence, or an effective industrial or commercial establishment in a Community country, but also individuals or legal persons having citizenship, residence, head quarters, or an effective industrial or commercial establishment in one of the countries parties to the Paris Convention or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Therefore this system co-exists with the system of national and international trademarks registration under the Madrid Agreement.
[Registration application]
A community trademark can be filed, upon the applicant’s choice, at the Office of Harmonization of the Internal Market (OHIM) whose office is in Alicante (Spain), either personally, by mail, by courier or via fax, otherwise at the Trademarks Office in Benelux, or at the Central Office of Industrial Property (in Italy the Italian Patent and Trademark Office), who would have to forward it to the OHIM within 2 weeks from filing it.
[Novelty research]
Once the application has been received, which can be filed in one of the official languages of the European Union, i.e. French, English, Italian, Spanish and German, the Office verifies that the formal requirements are fulfilled and then proceeds to make a research of novelty amongst the Community marks, whilst every country, with the exception of Italy, France and Germany, carries out a research on their own for prior registered trademarks. The novelty research will be done free of charge until 2008. From then on the research will be optional and upon payment of a fee.
Then the OHIM sends the search report to the applicant and proceeds to publish the trademark. Within three months from publication, whoever feels to have some rights on that name and does not want it to be registered can file an opposition by supplying evidence of use of the opposing mark for a period of five years preceding the publication.
[Publication and registration]
After having overcome all possible oppositional steps, the trademark is published and registered in the classes as indicated in the application. This mark gives the owner the exclusive right to use this name in all the countries of the European Union for a period of 10 years, after which it is possible to renew it. It is withdrawn if not used for a period of 5 years from the registration.
If the Community Trademark application is not granted for reasons existing only in some European Union countries, the application can, in some cases, be converted into a national one in the other countries where there are no such impediments.
[Law]
Regulation EU n. 404/94 of the 20.12.1993 and subsequent modifications.