In this world of constant innovation, trademark registration and its maintenance is viewed as challenging and tedious by start-up companies and sole entrepreneurs. However, trademark registration is crucial for the protection of your product or service as it allows you to profit of its unique position. Today, trademarks include word marks, figurative marks, shape marks, color marks, and even sound marks.

If you wish to file a trademark in the Netherlands, you will be granted protection in Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. This is known as a Benelux trademark registration and it is useful for entrepreneurs who are largely active in the Benelux countries. Additionally, if you sell goods or services outside the Benelux countries, it is recommended that you protect your trademark outside the Benelux.

While an international registration may be issued, it remains the right of each country or contracting party designated for protection to determine whether protection for a mark may be granted. Each singular market varies from the other and as such trademark registration has no extraterritorial effect, it stops at the border of the country where it was granted. Thus, although a Benelux trademark can be granted international protection by the filing of one single international application, licensing and prosecution of trademark infringement differ as per the different territories.

For protection limited to the European Union, a community trademark should be filed via the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) or as it was known prior to March 2016, the Office for Harmonization in Internal Market. European law is applicable to this type of trademark and gives you strong, exclusive rights for the entire European market.

In the United States of America, a trademark is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Unlike the Benelux and the EUIPO registrations, which extend protection for ten years, renewal of trademarks in the United States is slightly more complex as each renewal is for a different number of years.

While registration and renewals are significant parts of the process, it is equally important that the USPTO does not weaken your mark by approving registrations that are similar to/can potentially infringe your trademark and therefore opposing such claims is your legal right as the owner of the mark. A claim of priority based on a U.S. application can be used to strengthen usage of your mark while filing for protection internationally.

As trademark owners need to adopt an international trademark strategy to control, preserve, and protect their rights worldwide, Linn law is dedicated to the registration and maintenance of the registered mark including any litigation required to defend and enforce your rights at a local and global level. Mr. Linn’s legal strategies ensure that there is maximum protection of your trademarks.