Registrations

Trademark are either registered nationally in the country in which you want to legally protect your trademark, or via KHIM, the office which deals with community trademarks, i.e. trademarks providing protection throughout the EU.

You can also submit an international application via WIPO, in which case you choose the countries for which you wish to obtain protection for your trademark. Applications can be made for protection in all countries that have signed the Madrid Protocol.

In order to register a trademark it must, among other things, possess distinguishing capacity. Distinguishing capacity means that the trademark is not descriptive of the goods and services for which it is used. In certain circumstances distinguishing capacity is achieved through incorporation.

Registration also requires that the trademark can be reproduced graphically, cannot be confused with previously registered trade's and companies, is not misleading as regards e.g. the type of goods or service, nature, quantity, use, price or geographic origin or be perceived as someone else's family name. The extent of the protection is determined by the goods and services stated in the register of goods.

A trademark can consist of a word, a figure or a combination of these elements. However, trademarks can also consist of slogans, colours, melodies or the shape of a commodity. It can also be the packaging for a commodity, a so-called trademark appearance.