International protection

When your enterprise also is active outside the Benelux, it can be wise to protect your trademark outside the Benelux as well.

Protection in individual countries, by local legal procedures and authorities

In the first place you can protect your trademark through the use of local legal procedures of the countries you are active in. In most countries a specific authority is installed to deal with these requests, which always has particular procedures.

Especially when an entrepreneur only is active in a limited amount of countries (outside the Benelux), this can be an interesting option.

Protection in multiple countries at once

When an enterprise is active in multiple countries, it can become less interesting to register in every separate country. Every country has its own rules and procedures, apart from the costs to register separately. Furthermore you have to communicate with such authorities in their own language, which could lead to calling in translators. For this reason it can become more interesting to apply for EU or international protection.

EU-trademark

When a trademark is registered at the EUIPO, located in Alicante Spain, it is directly protected in all 28 EU Member States. This is therefore a very effective method.

Also the costs are favourable. The costs for one deport are perhaps higher than for one in the Benelux (from 850 euros for digital registration in one class), but this is significant lower if you compare this to the costs you would make to register in all countries separately.

The downside is that there are also disadvantages to registration of an EU trademark. Registration means that you must be trading in more than one or two Member States, so in the EU for real. An enterprise who is only active in a few countries can therefore not apply for this registration. When you are not active on this matter and e.g. do not claim against competitors in other countries who use similar trademarks, this could mean that you lose your right to claim against competitors when it could be in your benefit.

The procedure of EU-registration is also less easy. One of the issues in this regard is that the trademark/logo will be checked in all EU languages. When it does not meet standards of only one language, it cannot be registered. Furthermore the application will be checked in all individual Member States whether it can pass the test for registration. When the trademark/logo does not pass the test in only one country, e.g. because of a lack of distinguishing features, the application can be refused without protection in a single country.