TRADEMARKS

A trademark is a designation capable to be graphically represented, consisting especially of the words, letters, numbers, colours, drawings or the product shapes or the packages, serving for distinguishing goods or services on the market. The owner of a trademark acquires with the registration the exclusive right to use this trademark together with the marks ® for goods and services protected by the trademark. The term of protection is 10 years. And it can be renewed for another ten years. The number of extensions is not limited. 

Trademarks can be protected in foreign countries by a national registration in an appropriate country.  Protection in EU can be granted by the European Union Trademark; the registration is provided by the application at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in Alicante, Spain. The European Union Trademark trademark has a uniform character. It means that it has an equal effect throughout the EU: it can be registered, transferred, abandoned, cancelled or declared as invalid and use thereof can be prohibited only for all the territory of the Community. The use of the European Union Trademark is fulfilled if the trademark is used on the territory of at least one Member State of EU.

Trademarks registered in the Czech Republic can be registered as so-called international trademarks in most of countries of the world by a single application filed with the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva (WIPO) on the basis of Madrid Agreement and or Protocol relating to this Agreement.

Priority of a solution (preference based on the filing date of the application): an applicant (or his successor in title) can use its first filing date in one country as the effective filing date in another country, provided that the applicant files another application within 6 monts from the first filing.