EU trade mark
The Union brand ( English European Union trademark ; until March 23, 2016 CTM ) is a legal institution of intellectual property law at the level of European secondary law . Like the national trademark , it serves to distinguish the goods and services of one company from others. With the registration of an EU trade mark, the right holder acquires a legal position within the entire internal market of the European Union .
Before the introduction of the Community trademark at that time by Regulation (EC) No. 40/94, such a comprehensive position was only possible by registering the trademark with several trademark offices or by extending a national trademark with the help of the Madrid Agreement on the International Registration of Trademarks (MMA ). The original Regulation (EC) No. 40/94 was repealed and replaced in 2009 by Regulation (EC) No. 207/2009 and replaced by Regulation (EU) 2015/2424 u. a. changed with regard to the designation (since then EUTM ).
The EU trade mark offers the advantage of uniform protection in all countries of the European Union. All that is required for this is a single registration procedure at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
Compared to the other two options for trademark protection, the EU trade mark is both an alternative and a supplement. Each of the three options corresponds to a specific protective effect that is linked to the special requirements of the economy. A single national trademark offers limited protection in a single country's market, the EU trade mark offers protection in the domestic market, and in the case of the international (IR) trademark, protection can be extended to any number of countries in the Madrid association.
The three brands mentioned are not mutually exclusive, but can also be combined. With the accession of the European Community to the Madrid Trademark Protocol , a link between the Union trademark system and the Madrid system was created.
An EU trade mark is acquired by entering it in the register for EU trade marks. It can only be registered, transferred or declared null and void for the entire territory of the EU. This is one of the main differences to the IR mark, which can be extended to any number of member states of the MMA. The term of protection is ten years; it can be extended indefinitely. An EU trade mark has to be filed directly with the EUIPO since March 23, 2016. As of March 23, 2016, the costs of registering as an EU trade mark were 850 euros for electronic applications.
In 2014, 117,464 registrations were received.
literature
- Achim Bender: European trademark law. The community trademark system. Heymanns, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-452-26752-8 .
- Günther Eisenführ, Detlef Schennen: Community Trademark Regulation . 3. Edition. Heymanns, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-452-26889-1 .
- Kay Uwe Jonas, Ruth von Rango: The Community Trademark - An Introduction. In: Forum of International Law. No. 1-2, 1997, pp. 52-58.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Regulation (EC) No. 40/94
- ↑ Regulation (EC) No. 207/2009
- ↑ Regulation (EU) 2015/2424 , accessed on March 23, 2016
- ↑ EUIPO costs and fees
- ↑ Annual report of the Office 2014 (PDF; 5.6 MB)
