Intellectual Property

If you have a brand name for your business, you must register it in that particular jurisdiction. Failure to keep your mark registered, can leave it vulnerable to appropriation by companies whose only interests are often to exploit you in your desire to get it back.

Trademarks have territorial validity. Registered trademarks only grant protection in the country they are registered in.

Anybody may apply for an identical trademark in another jurisdiction. Thus, having your trademark registered in one country does not prevent others from registering the same in other countries or territories. It is very important for brand owners who do business internationally, to register their trademarks in all countries and territories which they believe may be potentially important for their business.

To protect your trademark internationally, you must file for trademark registration country by country. Nevertheless, through certain regional trademark offices, a single registration grants protection in multiple countries or territories.

BENELUX – Registration through this office grants protection in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. 

EUIPO/European Union Trademark – Registration through EUIPO grants trademark protection in all 27 member states of the European Union. Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain & Sweden

OAPI – Registration through the OAPI grants trademark protection in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Gabon, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Togo.

ARIPO – Botswana, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia (not member of the Harare Protocol), the Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It must however be remembered that worldwide trademark registration cannot be obtained in one go.

You can now easily manage your international trademark registrations through Crowe. We offer worldwide trademark registration services. Whether you need to register your trademark in a single country or obtain protection in other foreign countries, our consultants can help you. There is no need to contact attorneys directly in every single country; our network of agents currently covers over 180 jurisdictions worldwide.

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