Romanian law reserves representation before OSIM to certified industrial property attorneys. If your client has no domicile or registered seat in Romania, the file has to be handled by a local representative. We act in that capacity for foreign firms, without approaching the underlying client.
What the appointment involves
A power of attorney is required, but it does not have to be in place before filing. The application can be filed on the filing date and the power submitted afterwards, within the term set by OSIM. No legalisation or apostille is required for a trademark power of attorney — a signed scan is sufficient.
One power of attorney can cover several files for the same applicant. If you send us work regularly, a general power avoids repeating the formality each time.
How we work with instructing firms
- You keep the client relationship. We correspond with you, not with your client, unless you ask us to do otherwise in writing.
- Instructions in English. Filings and submissions to OSIM are drafted in Romanian, as the law requires; everything addressed to you is in English.
- Reporting at each official step. Filing receipt, publication, examination result, opposition period, certificate. We report deadlines with the date, not with a relative term.
- Professional fees. Quoted per act, not as a package. Official taxes are passed through at cost, with the OSIM receipt.
Services we handle as local associate
- Availability searches in the Romanian register, with a written opinion
- National trademark filings and prosecution before OSIM
- Responses to provisional refusals and examiner objections
- Oppositions and defences against oppositions
- Renewals, assignments, licences and changes of name or address
- Designation of Romania under the Madrid System, where a local representative is needed
- Validation and enforcement questions arising from EU trade marks in Romania
- Patents and industrial designs, on the same basis
Deadlines you will want to know
- Opposition: two months from publication of the application. Preclusive; it cannot be extended.
- Response to a provisional refusal: normally three months, extendable on request.
- Examination: approximately six months from filing, absent opposition or objection.
- Renewal: within the last six months of the ten-year term, with a six-month grace period against surcharge.
Conflict checking
We run a conflict check before accepting instructions and decline where a conflict exists. If you need the check before sending the file, send the mark and the applicant name only — we do not need the rest to answer.
Getting started
Send the mark, the applicant details, the goods and services or the Nice classes if you have already determined them, and the deadline you are working to. We confirm the fee and the filing date before we act. If the mark is in a non-Latin script, say so — the representation requirements change.