under the term “trademark” (Also “trademark” or “trademark”) means any visual designation that can be depicted graphically with the aim of individualizing certain goods or services of a certain enterprise from the goods or services of another.
A trademark is perceived by the consumer as an indicator of the origin of the goods on which it is indicated. A trademark may contain words with a distinctive expression and a special meaning, names of individuals, names of legal entities, pseudonyms, visual images, drawings, letters, numbers, colors (provided that they are established in trade as a distinctive feature of a particular product or service ), as well as the shape of the product or its packaging.
In order to ensure the protection of the trademark of any product, enterprises must guard the uniqueness of their brand and the exclusivity of the trademark, in order to prevent the misuse of the name and reputation of the company for commercial purposes by a third party. Thus, the safety of the trademark can now be guaranteed both at the national and at the European, and then at the international level. As a consequence, there is a generally accepted classification of trademarks according to the scale of their geographical uniqueness:
- National trademark
- European brand
- International trade mark
1. Trademark Protection at the national level is official registration in Office of Commercial and Industrial Property (Trademark Division) after submitting the corresponding application of the brand owner for the registration of the latter.
To avoid possible denial of registration or filing an appeal, filing a trademark registration application preceded by a formal control examinationwhich is necessary in order to establish that there are no so-called inadmissible and unacceptable elements in this trademark, as well as in order to confirm the absence of a similar, previously registered trademark with a different owner.
To register a trademark in Greece, it is necessary to draw up an appropriate application, which is then submitted for examination to the competent commission, accompanied by the necessary supporting documents. If it turns out that there are no grounds for registering a trademark, then this application is not accepted for further procedure. Within thirty (30) days from the date of filing the above-mentioned application and subject to compliance with all the established formalities, the relevant Decision on the registration of a national-style trademark is published.
If the Trademark Committee has comments or objections to the registration of a trademark, the applicant is given the opportunity to comment on these comments. The validity period of a registered trademark is 10 years from the date of filing an application for its registration. At the request of the owner-right holder, the validity of the trademark is extended, subject to the submission of an appropriate application.
2. If trademark registration was carried out in the national offices of Greece, this does not mean that the owner’s property rights are also protected in other European countries. In practice, this means that he will have to register his trademark in Europe, too, in order to “have time” to register ownership of it on a wider (European) scale, so as not to be forced to use one brand at the national level and another brand at the European level. if someone else has already registered the same brand in Europe.
Thus, if an enterprise is active not only in Greece, but also in other countries of the European Union, the most reliable protection of property rights is a European-style trademark. Having a brand officially registered in Europe, its owner legally qualifies as the sole owner of this trademark in all existing Member States EU, as well as in those countries that will join the EU in the near future. However, he does not have the opportunity to select individual European countries on an individual basis in which the trademark will be valid and unique.
The body responsible for the registration of European-style trademarks is the Patent Office of the European Union (EUIPO). The EUIPO, headquartered in Alicante, Spain, accepts and reviews trademark applications and makes the final decision on registration, positive or negative.
Successful registration of a European-style trademark makes the applicant the sole owner of the ownership of this brand in the entire European Union. Essentially, this means that it can prohibit any third party from illegally, for commercial purposes, using a trademark that is similar to its already registered trademark, as long as it identifies similar products or services, of course.
3. Finally, the third option – trademark registration for Greece is carried out through the provisions of the Madrid Protocol, which entered into force in Greece on 10/8/2000, in accordance with Law no. Ministerial No. Κ4-307/2-1-01, Government Gazette No. B 31/18-1-2001. The provisions of the Madrid Protocol are in force in 78 countries around the world.
In accordance with the Madrid Protocol, the owner of a trademark of a national design must apply to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization, aka WOIS), which is located in Geneva, Switzerland, with a request to register their trademark in any of the 78 member countries.
The term “trademark of international standard” does not mean that the registered trademark will be protected worldwide, but it allows the simultaneous registration of marks of the national standard according to a similar procedure in the territory of other member countries, in accordance with the legislation of each of them.
A prerequisite for filing an application for registration of an international trademark is the previous registration of a national and European trademark. If the transfer to an international trademark is made within six months of obtaining a previous national or European patent, the applicant has the right of priority, in the sense that he can indicate the original date of registration of his trademark of national and European designs, as the date of registration and international trademark stamps.
Therefore, anyone who has a real and permanent industrial or commercial establishment or residence in Greece, or is a Greek citizen and has a registered trademark in Greece, or who has applied for registration of a trademark in Greece, can apply for registration of an international trademark, designating the countries in which the brand owner wants to promote it.
An application for international registration of a trademark shall be made exclusively in French or English. The department conducts an examination of the application, the purpose of which is to identify possible inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the submitted documents, it is assigned a protocol number indicating the date of receipt and the number of accompanying documents. Within two months from the date of receipt of the application for international registration of a trademark, with the documents attached to it, is sent to the International Bureau, where the registration procedure takes place.
By using the above options, your trademark can be protected nationally, Europeanly and internationally, with the exclusive right to use it and prohibit a third party from using it for the same products or services. In particular, a trademark gives you the right to indicate it on goods, thereby endowing them with distinctive, exclusively your characteristics, to mention it when describing the services provided, highlighting your company among others that sell similar goods or provide similar services.
The law office of Kasatkina-Kusku Svetlana Anatolyevna has extensive experience in registering trademarks at the national, European and international levels. The procedure for securing a brand guarantee is a complex and time-consuming process that requires precision, method and good knowledge of the subject. Our law office takes care of all the formalities for the registration of your trademark from the moment of filing an application, which must be made in English or French, in case of brand registration at the European and international levels, having previously notified you in detail about the necessary accompanying documents, registration fees. We will also conduct a preliminary legal examination of a trademark to prevent a refusal to register it.
We continue to be with you to clarify any situations in which the lawyer Kasatkina-Kusku Svetlana will personally answer all your questions. Contact us today in a convenient way for you:
Greece, Athens, 10679, Hippocratus 2
Tel.: +30211-0149605
Mob.: +30 694-8273758 (Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram)
e–mail : kasatlaw@gmail.com
website: www.kasatkinalaw.com
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