London, Leeds & Exeter
Trade mark renewal
Besides protecting your trade marks by registration, Page White Farrer can also assist by renewing your trade marks, to ensure they remain in force. Our trade mark team is responsible for the renewal of thousands of intellectual property rights, around the world.
A dedicated in-house renewals team
Page White Farrer has its own renewals department in-house. This means that experienced renewals personnel are on hand to deal with any issues such as transfers or alterations you have made to the appearance of your trade mark.
Our renewals department pays renewal fees directly to Intellectual Property Offices or instructs local attorneys to pay those fees. We can provide estimates of the likely costs in advance, and we do not receive commissions from any external renewal service.
How frequently should I renew my trade mark registration?
In most countries, a trade mark registration has a limited time duration, for example 10 years in the UK or EU Intellectual Property Offices. Failing to renew means that the trade mark will be removed from the register and your rights will be lost.
We can apply to renew your trade marks for further periods. If a trade mark is overdue for renewal, in many countries, it may still be renewable within a 6 month late period, upon payment of an additional renewal fee.
Do I need to provide evidence of use?
In the UK and EU IP Offices it is not necessary to file evidence of use on renewal. In the US, evidence of use is required at certain stages, which we can assist you with.
Do I renew a trade mark for a logo if it has changed slightly?
It is good ‘housekeeping’ practice to check that the owner name and address are still accurate and that any logo or stylisation is still the correct version in use, at the time of renewal. We can advise you on whether it would be better to file a new trade mark application for the current stylised word or logo, rather than renew an old version.
Page White Farrer has its own renewals department in-house. This means that experienced renewals personnel are on hand to deal with any issues such as transfers or alterations you have made to the appearance of your trade mark. Our renewals department pays renewal fees directly to Intellectual Property Offices or instructs local attorneys to pay those fees. We can provide estimates of the likely costs in advance and we do not receive commissions from any external renewal service.
What is a seniority claim?
Where a trade mark owner has national registered rights in EU member states and also an EU wide trade mark registration for the same mark and overlapping goods, we can advise on whether cost savings may be made by making ‘seniority’ claims. These allow you to potentially save renewal costs, as the rights under the EU trade mark registration will then be backdated in place of the national rights in that country only.
Helping you keep track of trademark renewal deadlines
Page White Farrer provides a bespoke service for clients regarding the handling of trade mark renewal reminders and certificates.
We monitor renewal fee deadlines and aim to provide you with reminders regarding approaching deadlines which are due, to seek to ensure these are not missed.
If you wish, we can agree to arrange for your trade mark registrations to be renewed automatically without your prior authorisation on each individual case, saving you time and administration.
We can also provide data lists and portfolio reports on request, we will check all incoming trade mark renewal certificates and we will keep our own records updated, on the state of your cases.
