EU Trademark Registration

One filing, 27 countries

A European Union trade mark (EUTM) protects your brand across all 27 EU member states — a market of nearly 450 million consumers — with a single application to the EUIPO in Alicante. It covers Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Genuine use in one member state is enough to maintain it — an advantage over national marks and Madrid extensions. Note: since Brexit, an EU mark no longer covers the United Kingdom (see UK trademark).

What it costs

The EUIPO's official fee is €850 for one class, €50 for the second class, and €150 for each further class. The Nice Classification sorts goods and services into 45 classes (goods 1–34, services 35–45) — clothing falls in class 25, handbags in class 18, for example. Our flat service fee is €199 net; official fees are paid to the EUIPO. For one class that works out to roughly €31 per country.

How our agents handle it

You describe your brand and what it covers. AI agents search the EU register (and the WIPO and German registers) for identical and similar conflicts, weigh phonetic and visual similarity, map your goods and services to the correct Nice classes, and prepare a tailored specification. Everything is filed with the EUIPO and tracked to registration. A licensed attorney at Hucke & Sanker reviews anything that needs legal judgment. Once the application is submitted it can't be amended, and the office fee isn't refunded if the mark faces absolute grounds or a successful opposition — which is exactly why the clearance search comes first.

Examination and timeline

The EUIPO examines the mark for absolute grounds under Article 7 EUTMR — purely descriptive marks, for example, aren't registrable — and checks them in every official EU language, so a mark that would pass in Germany can be refused because the word means something in another language. Applications meeting the Fast Track criteria are examined within about four weeks and published; the whole process usually takes 4–6 months if no opposition is filed. A registration lasts 10 years and can be renewed indefinitely in 10-year terms.

Opposition and beyond

From publication, a three-month opposition window opens: holders of an earlier EU, international, or national mark in any of the 27 states can oppose. A thorough clearance search up front is the best defence. After registration, agents monitor your mark across registers and 200+ marketplaces, and protection can be extended to as many as ~130 Madrid members via WIPO.