The Trademark Act’s rules govern how trademarks are protected in Germany. The German Trademark Act also protects commercial names and geographic indicators.
The Trademark Act defines a trademark as any image, phrase, word, number, letter, sound mark, or three-dimensional design used to identify the products or services of a German business and set them apart from those of other businesses. After the symbol is registered with the German Patent Office’s Register, trademark protection kicks in. In Germany, a petition for trademark registration may be submitted by either businesses or individuals.
Trademark Filing requirements in Germany
German is the application’s official language in Germany. Applications submitted in a foreign language shall be given a filing date, provided a German translation is submitted within three months of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office receiving the application (DMPA). The DPMA may ask the applicant for the translation to be verified by a lawyer or patent attorney or prepared by a sworn translator while imposing the necessary deadline.
For a trademark application to be filed successfully, the following elements must be provided: the applicant’s information, a representation of the trademark, and a list of the products or services for which registration is being sought.
A copy of the Precedence Document must be produced to assert the priority of an earlier application (with a two-month grace period); however, the German translation is not required unless specifically requested by DPMA.
The POA should be filed only if the representative is not a German Patent Attorney. The POA does not need to be legalized or notarized.
Period to Oppose
Although there is no search for previous trademarks, the application procedure does include a formal review and an analysis of uniqueness. A trademark will be registered and published in the Trade Mark Journal if all conditions are satisfied (Markenblatt). Three months from the date of publication is the opposition period.
Trademark validity term
There is no set official grant fee for a German trademark. The trademark in Germany has a ten-year initial validity duration and may be extended once for further ten-year periods. The duration of validity for trademarks registered before January 14, 2019, expires on the last day of the month in which the application was submitted. Renewal fees for trademarks that expire on February 1, 2020, may be paid up to a year before the end of the protection period and without an additional cost up until the end of the second month following the due date. Six months before the expiration of the period of validity, renewal fees for all other trademarks are due. Following this date, the trademark owner has six months to pay the renewal amount and a late payment penalty.
Requirement of Use
If the trademark hasn’t been used for a continuous period of five years following the conclusion of the opposition period, the trademark registration in Germany may be revoked based on non-use at the request of a third party.
Pricing
€290 (including class fee for up to three classes)
€100 (for the fourth class and for each additional class)