Trademarks can be registered in the European Community as a single territory. Members of the EC are Austria, Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. As the EC grows, so do the rights associated with a European Community Trademark. The registry for community trademarks (CTM) is located in Alicante, Spain and is known as OHIM.

CTM applications must designate all fifteen EC countries. The applications are examined as to formalities and can be refused on absolute grounds only (e.g., descriptiveness, non-distinctiveness, protected symbols and so on). An official search is conducted by OHIM and by those member states who wish to do so. Applicants are advised of findings and are entitled to amend or withdraw applications, but applications are not refused at this stage on the grounds of prior rights.

CTM applications are published for opposition purposes with a three month opposition period from the date of publication. At this time, prior rights can be asserted, and these prior rights are not limited only to prior national or EC applications/registrations.

If an objection is raised to registration of the trademark in any EC country, the CTM application will fail, but it then can be converted to a national application in any or all of the member states without loss of priority. Convention priority can be claimed in the usual way. It is also possible to claim seniority from existing national registrations in member states.

If the applicant is doing business in three or more EC states, it is cost effective to seek a CTM registration. Moreover, renewal fees for a CTM registration are considerably less than renewal fees charged by each individual country.

Renewal is required every ten years. Registrations become vulnerable to cancellation after five years of nonuse, but "genuine" use in any one country will maintain the validity of registration in all fifteen.

For information on Foreign Trademark Registrations, click here.

Read about The Madrid Protocol.