Introduction: Trademark Registration in Spain
Trademark Registration in Spain is an easy and simplified process. To assure the ownership and distribution of goods and services in Spain. They need to be listed at the governmental institutions at either the national or the European level.
The EU Trademarks and Designs Registration Office (OHIM) is the general good institution to register your trademark in Europe. Thanks to this institution, anyone can file a trademark application, though we suggest that you hire a firm with experience in the filing. It can conserve you time and money, especially if someone presents a complaint against your trademark application.
Other registrations outside the traditional trademark are the intellectual property rights for songs, photographs, paintings, and other forms of artwork. This process is simple and economical and can be done regionally, assuring the exclusive use of the artist’s work.
Trademarkcart offers you the chance of protecting your trademark simply. It is likely to either register your trademark in Spain or the whole European Union. This service involves continuous monitoring of your trademark in the official databases to assure that nobody copies it.
What Are the Requirements for Registering a Trademark in Spain?
- If you are seeking to trademark a graphic image or design, you need to submit a printed reproduction.
- If you’re seeking to trademark a three-dimensional design, its design will have to be graphic or two-dimensional.
Additionally, the are some important elements that must be presented along with the trademark application form in to get a filing date, such as:
- The applicant’s identification.
- A specified name in the case of Word Mark, and/or a clear design of the graphic image in the case of design marks
- The products and/or services that the trademark will include.
Once a trademark application is filed before the OEPM. The office monitors the application to make sure that the mark complies with all the formal elements. If all the conditions are fulfilled, the mark is published in the Spanish Trademark Gazette for oppositions. During the 2 months following publication, any third party that holds that its trademark rights have been infringed may file an opposition upon your application.
Once the process has been made successfully and the trademark has been registered in Spain. It will be valid for 10 years which can be renewed regularly for the same time.
What Are the Benefits of Registering Your Trademark?
Registering a trademark in Spain gives the following advantages:
- The registered trademark will be guarded by Spanish law upon the use by persons or companies that try to copy it or reproduce it for their profit.
- It gives added commercial value to your band and a more professional business image, and as a result, it can benefit when applying for grants or loans much easier and at better interest rates.
- Your trademark can convert a source of additional income since, if someone uses your brand or idea, they must pay you for it.
Importance of Trademark registration in Spain
A registered trademark gives exclusive global use authority
Registering your trademark grants you security and the sole right to use your trademark concerning the products and services for which you have registered in a defined country or territory. As a registered trademark owner, you can take legal action upon anyone who uses your brand without your approval, including counterfeiters.
A registered trademark gives as a hindrance against third parties
That will otherwise use the same or confusingly same trademarks for alike or similar goods or services. In most countries, the former existence of a considerably alike registered trademark is grounds for government offices to reject the following registration. Moreover, trademark owners have the right to oppose the same trademarks from being registered.
A registered trademark gives one the right to use the ® Symbol
Upon registration, you will be ready to use this symbol to show that your trademark has been registered and is accepted by law. It also serves as notice to competitors that you are pretty serious regarding protecting your trademark rights. Such right is restricted to the countries in which the trademark is registered.
It is unlawful and criminal by law to use this symbol if your trademark has not been registered; penalties and punishments differ depending on the jurisdiction. The use of the ® symbol in some countries is also required if a trademark has been registered to be able to give legal actions or remedies upon a third party that practices a trademark without the owner’s permission.
A registered trademark is important to enlist help from countries’ Customs Service
If a trademark has been registered, actions can be used to ask local customs services to check the entering or exportation of goods that use the same or confusingly alike trademark.
Priority for subsequent applications
The first application for a trademark will give the holder the right to afterward claim priority when applying for the same trademark in the vast bulk of countries in the world, for 6 months. If preference is claimed inside a period of 6 months from the first application, the following applications will be regarded as having been presented on the same date as the application in the first country. This is necessary in case there are conflicting trademarks that were filed after the first application.
Trademark Registration in Spain: Procedure
Let’s have a look over the procedure of trademark registration
Step 1 Selecting a Mark and Trademark search
Selecting a mark is the crucial first step in the overall application/registration process. This needs to be done with thought and care because not every trademark is registered with the Trademark Authorities. Because all of the above are very necessary, we help you with these steps, as well as the overall application process.
An EU trademark is registered after review of the application in respect of registrability per se and finally as to earlier rights, after an opposition procedure.
Before filing an EU trademark application, we always consider the registrability of the mark, and we may send an introductory and cost-effective search in the appropriate Registries to decide whether anyone is already claiming trademark rights in wording/design that is alike and used on similar goods/services by trademark registration. In our preliminary report, we consider the trademark search service as well.
Whether the mark you need to register is registrable, and how hard it will be to protect your mark based on the presence or not of prior rights.
Step 2 Submission of the application and work with the TM Office
We make and file your trademark application taking into account the specific goods and services to which the mark will apply, with a cost sensible approach.
During the complete process, we observe the progress of your application through our system. It is necessary to review the status of your application after the first filing of the application. Because differently, you may miss a filing deadline. Certainly, after the ex officio examination, the application is translated into the official languages of the EU. And is printed in the official bulletin of EU trademarks. If oppositions were asked a notice thereof will be published. And the candidate must then reply to the objections within the appropriate period. After the expiration of the period for filing an opposition, the EUIPO does not offer an ex officio examination of the application regarding the registrability of the application or existence of incompatible earlier trademarks or first rights. Thus, if oppositions are not raised, relevant grounds of refusal would not be reviewed.
In the whole procedure, we consider the growth of your application by our system.
Step 3 Get approval/denial of your application
If the application finds no problem in the course of its prosecution, it may currently be required to mature to registration in 5-6 months. If though, it meets with some valid objection or opposition, the decision on the case will normally be given in more than 9 months.
The sole right to a mark is effective from the date of publication of the grant of its registration. A Certificate of registration is published by the authorities, as a proof of the protection of your mark.
Step 4 Maintainance of your Trademark Registration in Spain
EU Trademarks are given for the whole territory of the EU for 10 years from the date of the application. After that period, you may resume your application, to avoid the loose of the rights over the same.
We watch the status of your mark in our system thought the complete life of the mark. It is especially necessary to monitor the status of your mark periodically to hold your registration alive, telling you of the important deadlines.
Step 5 Protecting Your Rights
You are liable for enforcing your rights if you get a registration because the EU TM Office (EUIPO) do not “police” the use or registration of other alike marks.
The owner of a TM registration is liable for bringing any legal action to stop a party from using an infringing mark or registering any other alike mark.
Our Trademark Watch Service attempts to assure that no other party receives registration for the same or similar mark for or as applied to related goods/services. We watch your trademark in the registries to detect any newly filed trademark applications, informing you of potentially conflicting marks, so that we can file oppositions thereto.
We also give Trademark watch services, to reveal the most relevant results in a huge world of web content, identifying any infringement of your mark.
What You Need to Know about Trademark registration in Spain
Are you currently receiving a new product or service that you want to market in Spain? Well, describing your idea is just the first step in the process. To effectively access the Spanish marketplace, you must have a brand that stands out from all the rest. And more importantly, you require to register your trademark or trade name in Spain. But where to start? It’s likely that as a foreign company you have no idea how to register a trademark in Spain.
According to the OEPM, or the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, trademarks and trade names are unique industrial property rights given by the Spanish Government. It provides their creator exclusive rights to apply them in the economic marketplace and preserves them from being used by any outside or unaffiliated parties. This allows a company to differentiate its products or services from those of other competitors in the market.
A brand’s name and image are key factors in the process of reputation building, publicity, and marketing, as well as in any area of a business’s communication. Moreover, it is an essential tool for consumer protection and corporate policy. If you have a brand that you will like to record in Spain, and you’d like to be guided by the top experts, we at Trademarkcart are here to assist you with our expert team of Spanish lawyers.
To file your trademark in Spain, you must be aware that there are 3types of trademarks—the first is the brand name, the second is a mixture of the brand name and logo, and the last is individually the registry of the brand’s logo.
The registered trademark can include the following resources or symbol:
- Words or combinations of words that identify one or more persons.
- Images, symbols, graphics, or figures.
- Letters or numbers, either alone or combined.
- Three-dimensional shapes such as packaging, wrapping, or product presentation.
- Any combination of the above mentioned.
First of all, when you choose to register a trademark in Spain, you must check and make sure there is no other alike or same trademark or a commercial name that has been registered before. This will block you from complaining infringing on the industrial property rights of third parties. Our lawyers can carry out a utility report for you to check this information.
Secondly, you need to be aware of the type of trademark you are registering so that you can assure you are correctly guaranteeing your exclusive rights to the trademark and stop third parties from using it. Lastly, to register a trademark in Spain, you must be aware that your trademark is not opposed to public order, that it is not deceitful or misleading, and that it is not too general.
The bottom Line
If you are looking to simplify your trademark registration process allow TrademarkCart to guide you. We offer plenty of services worldwide.
At Trademarkcart, our expert intellectual property team is here to help you preserve your trademark at a national, European, and international level according to the scope of your brand. Our personalized consultation services will lead you through the process step by step, assuring your trademark registration and protection are carried out with both security and comfort.
We offer Trademark Registration in Spain, the USA, Dubai, Singapore, UK, and many more countries. You can visit our website “TrademarkCart” and avail Trademark Services. Even you can ring us at the number: +1-3024672224 or mail us at [email protected]
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