CTM - EU trademark registration

When a trademark is registered as a community trade mark (CTM), it is registered such that it covers every member state in the EU (i.e. covering the European Union). A trader can apply to register in one application his logo, trademark or brand for the European Union as a whole. A registered community trade mark ("CTM") now covers the 27 member states of the EU, with an aggregate population of 495 million. As trademark agents, we can apply to obtain community trademark registration, on your behalf, for the following:

•   For traders and businesses that are seeking to protect their logos throughout the EU,
•   For brands, logos and trademarks not registered in the EU,
•   For brands, logos and trademarks already registered in Ireland,
•   For registration of a trademark in the EU, as a Community Trademark (CTM),
•   For businesses making international applications for registering trademarks in other countries based on an Irish application.

The EU has a system for applying to register trademarks, which carry very similar rights to a trademark registered in Ireland. However, the community trademark registration only needs to be used in one member state of the EU to meet the requirements for validity throughout the EU as a whole, to be a CTM. This extends the reach of trademark territorial protection via community trademark registration.

Unitary nature of community trade marks - CTMs

A community trade mark registration or registered CTM has what is known as a unitary character once it is registered. The community trademark registration applies throughout the whole territory of the European Union. One trademark filing has the advantage of lower trademark registration costs, and less administration given that all the member states are included. However, having a unitary character, a community trademark registration requires that a CTM application meets the trademark registration requirements of each member state (which are being harmonised). Furthermore, an application for community trade mark registration must not conflict with any similar or other registered trademarks that exist in any other member state prior to the date of application - if it does it can be revoked or declared an invalid registered Community trademark.

Since late 2004, it is now possible to apply to register a trademark in the European Community, following the EU agreement to be a party to the Madrid Protocol. For certain foreign trademark owners, this can have certain attractions. It can be useful to base an international trademark application for registration on an Irish filing (or indeed a CTM application), because you can extend the territories for which you intend to use the trademark (if not at the time of application, then subsequently by designating other additional countries for registration of the trademark) - allways assuming the trademark is not registered in the selected territory, prior to the trademark application there. For a list of the countries that are parties to the Madrid Protocol, visit the international trademark registration page.

If you appply for registration of a trademark in some of the countries separately, they may have particular trademark registration requirements that must be met. For example, the UK requires an address for service, which we can provide, and others may require a declaration of intention to use the trademark. The Community trade mark as a single registration is one of the ways around this, and would cost a lot less than separate trademark applications to register trademarks in each of the member states. For our charges for trademark registration costs see our registered trademark costs page.

If you have used another trade mark agents in the past, you can use another one now. No problem, you can still appoint BATTLE as trademark agents for the EU or Community Trade Mark registration, while using your current agents for your existing trademark registrations or applications.

Another possibility is to appoint BATTLE^® for your CTM or next national application to register a trademark. If you would like to try our service and compare it with your current trademark agents, we would appreciate the opportunity to let you experience our competitive trademark registration service, and our fixed no-nonsense trademark registration pricing

If you have another trademark agent, this is not a problem, it is easy to use Battle For Trademarks as trademark registration agents also. You are allowed to have one trademark agent dealing with your local trademark application, AND appoint another trademark agent to deal with your EU or community trademark application to register a trademark. So, if you want to hold your current trademark agents for older registrations, you can also try out BATTLE^® .ie to see how we can work for your new applications to register trademarks:

  •   Even if you used another trademark agent for your Irish application, you are permitted to use BATTLE^® as trademark agents for any subsequent related trademark application(s), or even non-related trademark applications for the EU, as well as either for Ireland or elsewhere.

  •   We believe that our fees to apply for CTM or community trademark registration are highly competitive, and hard to beat.

  •   Because of the complexities involved in making applications for trademark registration to multiple countries involving different jurisdictions, we can only provide a quotation for international applications for trademark registration on request.

QUALITY trademarks services - for registered trademarks

We are proud of our trademarks service record.
BATTLE aims to provide customers with
high quality trademark services,
so that they will repeat their trademark business
with us again in the future.