Trademark registration in France: Conditions, Fees, Duration and Form
This article provides insights into the concept of trademarks, the registration process, eligibility criteria, protection periods, costs involved, and how to register a trademark online with the INPI.
Trademark registration in France is essential for protecting your brand identity and distinguishing your products or services from competitors. This article provides insights into the concept of trademarks, the registration process, eligibility criteria, protection periods, costs involved, and how to register a trademark online with the INPI.
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Table of Contents
- What is a Trademark?
- Why Register a Trademark?
- Who Can Register a Trademark in France?
- What Types of Trademarks Can Be Registered?
- How Long is the Protection Period for Trademarks?
- Community Trademarks
- International Trademarks
- Cost of Registering a Trademark
- How to Register a Trademark Online in 2024?
1. What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a symbol used to identify and distinguish products and services. It can take various forms, including:
- Text, letters, numbers, or any other typographical characters
- Slogans
- Images or logos
- Colors
- Sounds, such as MP3 recordings
- Three-dimensional shapes, like perfume bottles
- Holograms
- Patterns
Differentiation:
- Trademark: Legal aspect specifying a brand. It's a form of intellectual property granted to a sign registered and filed with regulatory authorities like the national trademark office.
- Brand: Commercial and marketing aspect expressing a company's identity and values.
2. Why Register a Trademark?
- After registration, no one else, besides you, can use a similar name for similar products, services, or competition, and counterfeit activities can be stopped.
- Enhances company asset value as registered trademarks have economic value, transferability, and licensing possibilities.
- Enables prediction of company's future development; you have a 5-year period of use post-registration.
3. Who Can Register a Trademark in France?
- Natural persons, including individuals, sole proprietors, artisans, and self-employed professionals.
- Legal entities also have the right to register trademarks, regardless of company type—civil companies (e.g., SCI) or commercial companies (SARL, SA, SAS, etc.), EIG, associations, foundations, or even public institutions (state, local authorities, unions, public institutions, etc.).
- Applicants can submit applications themselves or designate agents with special or permanent authorization (such as intellectual property agents or lawyers).
4. What Types of Trademarks Can Be Registered?
- The mark must be capable of being presented graphically.
- Must be a trademark with distinctiveness, allowing consumers to distinguish your products or services from competitors.
- The mark used must be lawful, complying with public policy and recognized moral principles, as well as the Paris Convention and WTO agreements.
- The trademark must be available for use, meaning no similar or identical names are already registered in the same region.
5. How Long is the Protection Period for Trademarks?
Trademark registration in France provides 10 years of protection, renewable indefinitely. To enjoy continuous protection, you need to renew the trademark within 6 months before expiry. Renewal procedures involve fees, varying based on the number of renewal categories. If you wish to add products or services, a new application is required.
6. Community Trademarks
Registering a trademark with the European Union Intellectual Property Office provides unique protection across all EU member states. Currently, registering a Community trademark offers protection in 27 countries.
7. International Trademarks
Contrary to its name, an international trademark isn't a unified term. The Madrid System offers a single procedure, allowing French trademark holders to submit a single application in one language to a single authority and pay a global fee. Subsequently, each country specified at the time of application can freely decide to accept or refuse trademark registration. Therefore, international trademark holders can only obtain rights in countries where their national trademark ultimately becomes effective.
8. Cost of Registering a Trademark
9. How to Register a Trademark Online in 2024?
To submit a trademark online, you must apply to the INPI (French National Institute of Industrial Property), fill out the form, and submit it. The trademark application will be published by the INPI in the Official Industrial Property Bulletin (BOPI). Subsequently, the INPI will review your application, and if there are no objections from third parties, the trademark will be registered and published in the BOPI.
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