Bulgarian citizens, legal entities, and foreign ones may apply for trademark registration in Bulgaria. Building and defending your brand can be accomplished by registering a trademark. When using the trademark, the owner may designate that it is registered by adding the registered trademark symbol ® in an appropriate area next to the mark.
A trademark is a symbol that differentiates one person’s goods or services from those of others. Words, including names, letters, numbers, designs, figures, the form of a product or its packaging, logos, colors, sounds, or any combination of these signs, as well as non-traditional trademarks like position marks, pattern marks, motion and multimedia marks, hologram, and three-dimensional trademarks, are a few examples.
Signs that do not serve the purpose of a trademark and do not fit the definition mentioned above are not subject to registration. In this regard, we strongly advise you to obtain a preliminary legal opinion on the registrability of your mark. Additionally, a pre-filing trademark check for collision with identical or confusingly similar earlier trademark rights is essential to avoid issues with registration.
The right to a trademark is acquired by registration in the Bulgarian Patent Office.
Trademark Registration Process
As a “first to file” jurisdiction, Bulgaria requires trademark registration before granting rights to a mark.
Registering a trademark in Bulgaria locally through the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria (BPO) or regionally by submitting a European Union Trademarks (EUTM) application, which offers protection throughout the entire European Union.
Bulgaria is a signatory to the Madrid Protocol as well. As a result, this nation can extend international trademark registration under the Madrid System.
When a combination trademark (one with both word and figurative features) is registered in Bulgaria, the owner only has the exclusive right to use the mark in the same way it was submitted and registered. You should file for a different trademark that only includes the word or figurative features you intend to use and protect separately. This is true if you wish to use the word element of your trademark separately from the logo (or vice versa).
However, you will have the right to oppose the application on the grounds of confusing similarity if a third party subsequently wants to register or use a trademark for comparable goods or services that includes a primary or separate component or portion of your trademark. Depending on the specifics of each situation, many conditions will affect the odds of an opposition’s success.
In Bulgaria, third parties have three (3) months after an application’s publication in the Official Bulletin to submit trademark oppositions against it. In the event of overseas applications filed under the Madrid system, oppositions may be filed between the sixth and ninth months after publication in the Official Bulletin of the BPO.
Although prior use of a trademark is not a requirement for registration, if a trademark is not used in Bulgaria for five (5) years, it will become vulnerable to cancellation actions for non-use.
Period to Oppose
Any interested person may file grounded opposition against the Bulgarian trademark application within three months from the publication of the application.
Validity Period
The grant fee must be paid within a month of registering. In Bulgaria, a trademark is registered for ten years beginning on the filing date. In Bulgaria, trademarks are renewable for ten-year periods. The renewal payments may be paid within six months of the due date or during the final year of the protection period by paying an additional fee.
Requirement of Use
In case a registered trademark in Bulgaria is not used in this territory within five years from registration, the registration may be revoked unless there are legitimate reasons for non-use.
Also, get in touch with us of Bulgaria patent registration.