Eurimark is helping us for fast trademark registration; we benefit from a 24/7 service to answer our clients' most urgent requests. We appreciate the number of countries covered by the system that allows us to centralize for a single project all the registrations with only one contact.
Eurimark est le système le plus intelligent pour effectuer une recherche globale concernant la protection d'un nom de marque en Europe.
Protection of trademarks in Benelux
There are two ways to protect a trademark in the Benelux countries:
* applying for a Community Trademark, protecting your brand in all three countries of the Benelux as well as in Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom. To proceed with trademark application in European Union, click here.
* applying for a Benelux trademark, protecting your rights in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (there is no possibility to apply for a trademark in one country alone).
Why apply to register?
According to the Benelux Trademark Law, exclusive rights to use the Trademark belong to the first applicant. Use of a Trademark in the Benelux Member States does not confer any rights without a trademark registration to support it. A third party applying for a trademark already in use may therefore be the lawful owner of this trademark and will be entitled to prevent the prior user from using on the Trademark.
What is a Benelux Trademark?
The Benelux Uniform Trademark Law states that any symbol which may be represented graphically and is used to distinguish a company's products and services is a Trademark. The Trademark will have to possess a distinctive character.
What is not a Trademark?
Since 1st January 1996 the Benelux Trademark Office may refuse to register a Trademark on the basis of absolute grounds. These grounds are interalia:
- the absence of distinctive power, and particularly generic or common terms;
- an interference to the morality or the public order; or
- a deceptive character.
The main interest of a Benelux Trademark is the possibility to obtain rapidly and at a low cost the registration of the application by means of an accelerated procedure and to protect the Trademark in the three Benelux Member States through a single and identical right.
The owner of a Benelux Trademark can be everyone: an individual, a company, or any entity with a legal capacity.
Territorial extent of a Benelux Trademark:
Protection extends to all Benelux Member States, i.e. Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. It is not possible anymore to apply for a national Trademark in these countries.
Claiming the priority of national trademarks: The priority of a foreign Trademark application may be claimed in a Benelux Trademark Application filed less than six months after the filing date of the prior foreign application.
An opposition procedure is open under conditions to third parties in order to protect their prior trademark rights. An opposition may be filed within a two months period beginning the first day of the month following the publication of the application.
Obligation of use: Using the Benelux Trademark effectively and seriously in one of the three Member States is sufficient to maintain the Right. Even if the mark is not used in each of the Member States, the Applicant does not need to fear revocation proceedings on the grounds of lack of use.
Free transfer of the Benelux Trademark rights:
A Benelux Trademark may be transferred, together with or separately from any transfer of the undertaking which is its owner, in respect of some or all of the goods or services for which it is registered.
An exclusive or non-exclusive license of the Benelux Trademark may also be agreed and should be registered with the Benelux Trademark Office to be opposable to third parties.
Steps to obtain a registration are quite simple: just provide us with the Trademark, the products and/or services provided under this mark, together with the name and address of the owner, or click here to conduct your search and apply online.