Services Trademarks protected by Kiortsis & Associates Law Offices The commercial trademark (TM) is a significant firm asset, which guarantees the quality of a firm's goods or services. It is therefore important for the owner to have every trademark protected in order to ensure the exclusive right of its use and to prevent unfair competitors from using identical or similar ones for inferior products or services. The only way for a TM to be protected is to be formally filed with the appropriate national or regional Trademark Office. It is irrelevant whether the tradesman or the commercial establishment has already used the mark in marketing to the public or is still in the stage of preparing to do so. The trademark will be registered to the party who files the first application for it with the Trademark Office. The period of protection varies, but a TM can be renewed indefinitely beyond the time limit on payment of additional fees. In Greece TMs are protected for 10 years as from their application date and their protection can be renewed every 10 years. *** The Law Offices Kiortsis & Associates is currently involved with the protection of approximately 5000 TMs. We undertake all cases concerning any kind of TM, namely Domestic and Foreign, Collective, Community and International, such as the following:
DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN TRADEMARKS Domestic is the TM the owner of which is a corporation or a natural person with a seat/address in the country where the TM application is filed and Foreign is the TM the owner of which has its seat/address in a country other than the country where the application is filed. The application for foreign TMs in Greece requires a Power of Attorney simply signed by the applicant, without further notarization or legalization. COLLECTIVE TRADEMARKS Collective is the TM which is owned by an association which is of a professional nature. Examples of such associations would be those representing accountants, engineers, or architects. A Collective Trademark is used for the identification of goods or services of the association members with a level of quality and other requirements set by the association. COMMUNITY TRADEMARKS Community Trademark is the TM which is protected in all countries of the European Union only with one application for registration with the Office of the European Union in Alicante, Spain (www.oami.europa.eu). The application for registration of a Community TM can also be filed in Greece, with the relevant Trademark Department of the Ministry of Economy, Competitiveness and Shipping (www.gge.gr). In spite of the advantage that only one TM application is sufficient for its registration in all countries of the European Union, there is, however, a disadvantage: If an opposition is filed and accepted against the registration of a Community TM even in only one country of the European Union, the TM will not be accepted as a Community one, and it will have to be re-filed as a national one in each country where there was no opposition filed or the opposition was rejected. INTERNATIONAL TRADEMARKS International Trademark is the TM whose protection was sought in a number of countries (which have become party to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and/or the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement) only with one application for registration with the International Bureau in Geneva (www.wipo.int). The applicant of an International Trademark designates the countries in which he wishes the TM to be registered and the International Trademark application is accepted in the ones that do not have objections or where the objections have been rejected. An international application produces the same effects as an application for registration of the mark made in each of the countries designated by the applicant. If protection is not refused by the Trademark Office of a designated country within a specified period (12 or 18 months), the protection of the mark is the same as if it had been registered by that Office. STATES OF POSSIBLE PROTECTION OF status in March 2010
Total: 84 countries
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