Community Trade Mark

The Community trade mark, English Community Trade Mark CTM abbreviated, is an institution of intellectual property law at the level of European secondary law. It serves as the national mark to distinguish goods and services of one undertaking from others. With registration of a Community trade mark the right-holder acquires a legal position within the whole of the internal market of the European Union.

Such a comprehensive position was before the introduction of the Community trade mark by Regulation ( EC) No 40/94 only by registration of the mark possible in several Trademark Offices or on the extension of a national brand with the help of the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks ( MMA). The original Regulation (EC ) No 40/94 was repealed and replaced in 2009 by Regulation (EC ) No 207 /2009.

The Community trade mark has the advantage of uniform protection in all countries of the European Union. This will require only a single registration procedure at the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market ( OHIM).

Compared to the other two possibilities of trademark protection, the Community trade mark has at the same time an alternative and complement. Each of the three possibilities corresponds to a specific protective effect, which relates to special needs of the economy. A single national brand is offering a limited edition of one a single country market protection, the Community trademark offers protection in the internal market, and in international ( IR) brand protection can be extended to any number of countries of the Madrid network.

The three brands mentioned are not mutually exclusive but can be combined. With the accession of the European Community to the Madrid Protocol to link the CTM system to the Madrid system was created.

A Community trade mark is acquired by registration in the Register of Community trade marks. You may only be registered for the entire territory of the Community, transmitted or annulled. This is one of the essential differences from the IR brand that can be extended to any number of countries of the Union of MMA. The term of protection is ten years; they can be extended indefinitely. The cost of registration as a Community trade mark at OHIM be currently (as of 2012) 900 Euros ( electronic filing ).

A Community trade mark may either be filed directly with the OHIM, or a national office for industrial property rights in a Member State of the European Union. In the year 2011 105857 registrations went for a Community trade mark.

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