One application, one procedure, protection across all twenty-seven member states. The EU trade mark is the efficient route when your business crosses borders — and the wrong route when it does not.
What unitary effect means
An EU trade mark is a single right covering the whole Union. It cannot be limited to some member states and not others. That is its strength and its weakness: one earlier right in one member state can defeat the entire application. If an opposition succeeds, the EU application falls in its entirety.
The application can then be converted into national applications in the states where no conflict exists, keeping the original filing date. Conversion preserves priority but costs time and money, which is why the availability search before filing matters more here than at national level.
When the EU route makes sense
- You sell, or intend to sell, in more than two or three member states
- You export from a Romanian production base into the wider Union
- You need a single right to enforce at EU customs against counterfeit imports
When national filing in Romania is better
- The mark is used only on the Romanian market
- An earlier EU or foreign right would block the EU application
- Budget matters more than territorial reach
Procedure and timing
Examination on absolute grounds takes roughly one to two months. The application is then published, and a three-month opposition period opens. Absent opposition, registration follows shortly after. A clean file typically completes in four to six months.
EUIPO does not refuse on relative grounds of its own motion. As in Romania, earlier rights are raised only by their holders, through opposition.
Use requirement
An EU trade mark must be put to genuine use in the Union within five years of registration, otherwise it becomes vulnerable to cancellation. Use in a single member state can suffice, but the assessment is qualitative rather than geographic, and filing across classes you do not trade in creates exposure rather than protection.
What we do
Availability search across the EU register, determination of the Nice classes, filing, prosecution, and defence against opposition. We act as representatives before EUIPO and report in English at every official step.