Opposition

An opposition is a procedure that involves two parties:

an applicant who filed an EU trade mark application;
an opponent who can file a form within 3 months after a trade mark has been published.

This procedure allows the opponent to protect his or her earlier EU trade mark or other rights against a new EU trade mark application.

A notice of opposition may be submitted by the opponent who could be:

a proprietor of an earlier trade mark or of other rights;
a representative, authorised person entitled to do so.

After examination of the opposition and if it is admissible, the involved parties will be invited to send additional information and evidence to support their positions.

If the opposition is justified, the contested EU trade mark application will not be registered. If the opposition is rejected, the Office will proceed with the registration of the EU trade mark.

Any party adversely affected by the decision may launch an appeal before the Board of Appeal.

All opposition decisions are published online and available in eSearch plus.

The applicant can minimise the risk of opposition by searching for potential conflicts before they apply.

Further information on how to file a notice of opposition against an EU trade mark or international registration and the grounds.

Further information on the registration process.

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The existence of earlier rights constitutes a relative ground for refusal of the registration of a European Union trade mark. The Office does not examine of its own motion such grounds for refusal. Consequently, the EU trade mark application is published in the EU Trade Marks Bulletin and a period of 3 months is given in which to file notice of opposition to protect earlier rights that the future European Union trade mark could affect.

Therefore, the European Union Trade Marks Bulletin constitutes the means of informing when a European Union trade mark application has been filed, thus allowing the proprietors of earlier rights to protect such a right.

You can also create an alert within your User Area, which can notify you of similar trade marks to yours being filed.

Further details on searches can be found under FAQs Search Availability.

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Notices of opposition, filed within a time limit of 3 months following the publication of the European Union trade mark application, are processed by the Opposition Division. After checking whether the fee has been paid in time, the Opposition Division will examine whether the notice of opposition fulfils the basic requirements. If it finds a deficiency that can be remedied, the opponent is requested to do so.
Once this phase has drawn to a close, the applicant for the European Union trade mark will be advised of the notice of opposition. At this point, a period of 2 months commences in which both parties can contact one another to try to come to a friendly settlement. This is known as the cooling-off period.

For more information about your rights, please consult the looking after your rights page in the trade marks once registered section of our website.

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In order to ensure an efficient protection of your rights, we recommend consulting a legal practitioner specialised in trade mark matters. You can find a list of representatives before the EUIPO in eSearch plus

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The ‘cooling-off’ period consists of the 2 months following the notice of opposition and is prior to the commencement of the adversarial phase (in which both the opponent and the applicant participate). As the adversarial phase has not yet commenced, if both parties reach an agreement that puts an end to opposition, neither party will be ordered to pay costs.
In addition, if the agreement reached is based on restricting the list of goods and services of the EU trade mark by excluding those affected by the opposition or if it is based on the withdrawal of the EU trade mark application, the Office will refund the opposition fee to the opponent.

Further details can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 1, Procedural Matters.

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Oppositions against EU trade mark applications have to be filed in writing within a period of 3 months following the publication of the EU trade mark application in the EU Trade Marks Bulletin.
For your convenience, oppositions can also be filed using the online form. Once the online form has been submitted, an opposition number will be allocated to your request.
Opposition is considered as duly submitted only if the opposition fee has been paid.

Further information on how to file a notice of opposition against an EUTM or international registration.

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Yes, the EUIPO accepts a notice of opposition against an EU trade mark application before the EU trade mark application has been published in the EU Trade Marks Bulletin, thus before the commencement of the opposition period. The opposition will be kept on hold and be deemed to have been filed on the first day of the opposition period, namely the first day after the publication of the EU trade mark application in Part A1 of the EU Trade Marks Bulletin.

Further details on how to file a notice of opposition can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 1, Procedural Matters.

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To file a notice of opposition a payment must be received by the Office within the time limit for filing an opposition.
Further details on opposition fee.

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Applicants who do not have their domicile, principal place of business or real and effective commercial establishment within the EEA ( European Economic Area) are required to be represented before the Office. To access the Office’s list of representatives, please consult eSearch plus.

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The Opposition Division of the EUIPO uses the five languages of the Office (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish). The notice of opposition may only be filed in one of these languages and the language must also coincide with one of the two languages chosen by the applicant for the European Union trade mark, as indicated upon publication of the application in the EU Trade Marks Bulletin. This language will then be used throughout the opposition proceedings.

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If the notice of opposition is filed in one of the languages of the Office (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) that does not, however, coincide with the languages of the opposed EU trade mark application, the opponent is granted a time limit of 1 month in which to produce a translation into the appropriate language.

Further details on Language of proceedings can be found in the Guidelines, Part A, General Rules, Section 4, Language of Proceedings.

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A notice of opposition may be filed within a period of 3 months following the publication of the EU trade mark application. The official publication date is the date on which the application is published in Part A1 of the European Union Trade Marks Bulletin. The notice of opposition and payment of the opposition fee must be received by the Office within this time limit.

Further details on how to file a notice of opposition can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 1, Procedural Matters.
Further information about opposition fees.

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Natural or legal persons may file a notice of opposition based on as many trade marks as are considered necessary, provided that they are the proprietors.

Further details can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 0, Introduction.

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No. The opponent must be a single natural or legal person and must base the notice of opposition on trade marks of which the opponent is the proprietor. Consequently, if an opposition to an EU trade mark application is based on several trade marks belonging to different companies (different natural or legal persons), each person will have to file a separate notice of opposition.
There can only be more than one opponent on the same notice of opposition when they are co-proprietors of the opposing trade marks.

Further details on this matter can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 0, Introduction.

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Yes. The language of the proceedings is established when the opponent chooses one of the Office’s languages, which must also coincide with one of the two languages indicated in the EU trade mark application. All correspondence with the Office, as well as any documents upon which opponents base their rights, must be drawn up in or translated into the language of the proceedings.

Further details on this matter can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 1, Procedural Matters.

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The Office serves the notice of opposition once it has established that the opposition is admissible in accordance with the EU trade mark regulation ( EUTMR). This does not mean, however, that it is ‘complete’. After the expiry of the ‘cooling-off’ period and if the parties have not reached a friendly settlement, the opponent has a period of 2 months in which to complete the file by submitting the evidence upon which the opponent’s arguments and rights rely. The Office will then send the documents received to the applicant so that the applicant may submit observations within a period of 2 months.

Further details on this matter can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 1, Procedural Matters.

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Trade marks are subject to the obligation of being put to real and genuine use on the market within a period of 5 years following their registration in all the Member States of the European Union. Accordingly, the European Union trade mark regulation ( EUTMR) grants the applicant the opportunity to request the opponent to submit proof of the use of the trade marks upon which an opposition has been based, provided that these trade marks have been registered for more than 5 years. The request for proof of use must be ‘unconditional’ and submitted in a ‘separate document’.
Those goods or services for which proof of use has not been proved will be excluded from the opposition. In other words, opposition proceedings may only continue in relation to the trade marks and goods and services for which real and genuine use has been proved. If use is not proved for any of the goods and services for which the earlier trade mark(s) is(are) registered, the opposition will be rejected.

Further details on this matter can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 6, Proof of Use.

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The evidence submitted must consist of ‘indications concerning the place, time, extent and nature of use of the opposing trade mark for the goods and services in respect of which it is registered and on which the opposition is based’. For example, evidence may consist of supporting documents and items such as packages, labels, price lists, catalogues, invoices, photographs, newspaper advertisements, and sworn or affirmed statements.

Further details on this matter can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 6, Proof of Use.

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The decision on apportionment of costs is given in a decision on substance. In all other cases where the EUIPO Opposition Division closes the case, a decision on costs is attached to the notification. Where the costs are limited to representation costs and the opposition fee, the decision fixing the amount of costs will be included in the decision on the apportionment of the costs according to the ceilings set out in Article 18 of the EU trade mark implementing regulation.

Further details on this matter can be found in the Guidelines, Part C, Opposition, Section 1 Procedural Matters.

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Evidence submitted must consist of ‘indications concerning the place, time, extent and nature of use of the opposing trade mark for the goods and services in respect of which it is registered and on which the opposition is based’. For example, evidence may consist of supporting documents and items such as packages, labels, price lists, catalogues, invoices, photographs, newspaper advertisements, and sworn or affirmed statements. The evidence must be provided in a structured manner and must include an index.

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*Please note that the contact form is only for requesting information. Anything you send us through this channel will not be considered within a specific trade mark or design file. If you need to communicate on a specific file, please use the respective e-action in the User Area. If you do not see an option that matches your need, please select the ‘Communication back up’ option (the link only works if you are logged into the User Area).

The questions and answers provided on this page serve a purely informative purpose and are not a legal point of reference. Please consult the European Union Trade mark and Community Design Regulations or Trade mark / Design Guidelines for further details.

For more information about how the Office handles your personal data, please consult the Data protection notice.

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