Trademarks are used to distinguish goods and services of companies. The classification of goods and services is defined by the International treaty known as "Nice Classification" or "International Classification of Goods and Services". Every five years the Nice Classification is revised.
Filing a Trademark Application in Munich
Any natural or legal person, or anybody equivalent to a legal person, may apply for a German trademark. We are eager to assist you in all aspects for filing a trademark application. Before filing your trademark application with the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO) in Munich, we would be pleased to assist you in preparing a list of goods and services which best identifies your trademark and which guarantees the utmost protection for your trademark. You can contact us in writing or by phone, but we would also be very pleased to meet with you in person in our office in Munich. Further, before filing the trademark application with the German Patent and Trademark Office, we could check if your trademark infringes existing older rights, in other words, we could check if similar or identical trademarks have already been registered, as the German Patent and Trademark Office does not conduct such an examination. As soon as we are in receipt of all necessary data for filing a trademark application, for example, the name of the applicant, what type of trademark is to be registered and so on, we will file the application.
The official fee for filing a German trademark application is 300.00 €, which includes three classes of goods and services. For each further class of goods and services, the German Patent and Trademark Office's official fee is 100.00 €.
Once the application has been filed, registration of the German trademark will normally take several months. Should you wish to have your trademark registered within a few months, a request for accelerated examination can be filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office. There is an official fee of 200.00 € for such a request.
When filing a trademark application, and upon registration of the trademark with the German Patent and Trademark Office the trademark is only effective in Germany. Should you wish to have protection for your trademark in countries other than Germany, for example should you with to extend the rights of your trademark to the whole of the European Union, you could also file a Community Trademark Application with the Trademarks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market - OHIM).
Should you desire protection of your trademark rights in more countries than the EU member states, you could file separate trademark applications in the respective countries or you file one single application with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), applying for an International Registration of your trademark. Such a request for International Registration with a German basic trademark can be filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office in Munich.
Rest assured that we can provide a broad range of assistance for all your queries relating to trademark applications and registration procedures and we would be delighted to assist you.