oami.europa.eu Trade Marks Search Spain : Office For Harmonization In Internal Market

Organization : Office For Harmonization In Internal Market
Type of Facility : Trade Marks Search
Country: Spain

Website : europa.eu
OHIM eSearch : europa.eu
TMview : tmdn.org/tmview/welcome

Trade Marks Search :

If you are in business, you have a trade mark. It’s the way your customers identify you. Your trade mark differentiates your products from everyone else’s and encapsulates your values. It may be your most valuable asset.

Related : Office For Harmonization In Internal Market Apply For Trade Mark Online Spain : www.statusin.org/9358.html

Your trade mark is part of your intellectual property and is crucial to your success as a business.

Search availability:
If someone else has already registered your mark, it is not available. You can save time and money by searching for marks that could conflict with yours before you apply. In the European Union there are around seven million registered trade marks.

It costs nothing to search, and the information you find is crucial to your application. If someone already owns a trade mark they might want to object to your application.

Where to search?:
TMview:
The TMview database contains information from most of the EU national IP offices, OHIM and a number of international partner offices outside the EU on trade mark applications and registered marks. A trade mark applied for or registered at national level before yours could pose a threat to your application. So make sure you also take any such trade mark into account.

For more details about trade marks filed with OHIM, use eSearch.

How to search?:
Search methods:
There are three main factors to take into account when analysing the search results: the timing, the sign, and the goods & services. Checking these factors does not rule out risks but does minimise them.

Priority:
Trade marks are protected on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

Trade mark protection begins when a legal filing date is given.

However, when establishing who has filed first, it is not only the filing date of the potential competitor’s trade mark that has to be taken into account, but also any priority date.

When filling in the trade mark application form, applicants are asked to complete the part relating to priority. They can do this if they have applied for the same trade mark in another jurisdiction within the previous six months. If the priority date is accepted by OHIM, the filing date from the first application will become the benchmark for calculating who filed first.

Similarity:
When comparing your trade mark with earlier ones, you need to put yourself in the position of a typical consumer. What you have to ask yourself is: ‘Is a consumer likely to believe that my trade mark already belongs to someone else?’ If the answer is ‘yes’, you might have a problem.

By the way, don’t limit your search to identical trade marks. Signs similar to yours could also pose a threat.

Analogy:
In the majority of cases, there must also be a link between the goods and services that you offer, and those applied for in the potentially conflicting mark. Here again, the goods and services that you provide do not need to be identical to those of the other party. Even if they are only similar, they could pose a threat.

What to do?:
What should you do with your search results?:
If you find that your mark or one like it has already been registered or applied for, you have a number of options
Negotiate: contact the owner of the earlier trade mark to reach an agreement (many identical or similar trade marks coexist in the market)
Risk registration: go ahead and file your application and risk opposition (the decision as to whether to object to a CTM application depends on many factors; the existence of an earlier registration does not prevent you from applying)
Challenge: challenge the first trade mark
Give up: go no further because the risk of opposition is too great

Contact us:
Avenida de Europa, 4, E-03008 Alicante, Spain

Information centre: +34 965 139 100