de la Propiedad
Industrial,
Patentes y Marcas.
Marca comunitaria. Abogacía
Community trademarks
< returnA Community Trademark is a trade mark valid across the European Union, registered with OHIM in accordance with the provisions of the CTM Regulations.
Scope and validity
A Community Trademark is valid in the European Union as a whole. It is not possible to limit the geographic scope of protection to certain Member States.
A Community Trademark is valid for 10 years and can be renewed indefinitely for periods of ten years.
Level of protection
A Community Trademark confers on its proprietor an exclusive right to use the trade mark and to prevent third parties to use, without consent, the same or a similar mark for identical or similar goods and/or services as those protected by the CTM.
Maintaining your mark
As important as getting protection before OHIM it is to have the community trademark watched in each of the member countries and OHIM itself in order to detect potentially conflicting marks and so to be able to stop them by the opposition proceedings. Since the protection of trade marks has been left in the hands of their owners and national offices-most of them- do not deny by themselves by reason of similarity it is essential that operators are informed of new applications. In Urteaga Patentes y Marcas S. L. we provide you with this watching service.
CTMs shall be put to genuine use in the Community within a period of five years following registration (Article 15 CTMR). Genuine use may be found when the mark has been used in only one part of the Community, such as in a single Member State or in a part thereof. Any person (legal or natural) can protect their registered CTM against revocation on the grounds of lack of use – provided it is put to genuine use in the Community after the initial five-year post-registration grace period or if there are proper reasons for such non-use.
Thus, the best defence against revocation action is pre-emptive: non-generic, non-misleading, genuine and continuous use of the Community trade mark at all times. Use it or lose it!
