Application

The application is a request for the registration of a trademark at the Trademark Office. A trademark will be registered if it is considered to be registrable, the official fees have been paid, and, depending on the Office, the registration is not prevented by an opposition.

The Trademark Office examines whether there are any absolute grounds for refusal of registration. Indications which are merely descriptive of the goods or services claimed cannot be registered. For example, the indication “banana” cannot be registered for the goods “fruit.” The registration of “pear” for computers, however, would be possible.

If the Trademark Office considers the application to be registrable, it will enter the trademark in the official Trademark Register. The registration will be published and the applicant will receive a Certificate of Registration.

If the Trademark Office considers the application unregistrable, it will notify the applicant and give the opportunity to comment. If the Trademark Office maintains its opinion, it will reject the application by a decision which may be appealed.

The fact that a sign was registered as a trademark at an earlier time does not justify claims that the sign will be registered as a trademark again at the current time.

Advice for use in practice: The Trademark Office does not check for a German trademark or an EU Trade Mark, whether earlier identical or similar trademarks of other owners exist. Where they consider it necessary, trademark owners must monitor their trademarks independently (trademark monitoring) and take action against identical or similar trademarks of third parties.

The application for a trademark may already infringe an earlier trademark (trademark infringement). Prior to filing the application, we therefore recommend to carry out a trademark similarity search, which is included in our “PRO” packages.