Trademark registration is a type of intellectual property protection that is used in the business of any natural or legal person to distinguish goods or services from those of the competition. The registered trademark provides monopoly rights and provides its owner with a number of advantages, including profit growth. The holder has the main obligation to keep the registration in force. During a period of 10 years, fees for trademark renewal are paid.

Trademark, is not just a word, name, logo or a combination of them. It is the distinctive sign through which the consumer connects certain goods or services with the trademark owner. At the same time, the current trademark registration restricts third parties from using the trademark without the owner’s permission. The current registration does not allow protection for a competitor for the same or a known mark for identical or similar goods and/or services. Trademark registration may last an unlimited period of time.

Trademark renewal

The proprietor may maintain the validity of the mark for as long as necessary. In practice, he can maintain registration by renewing the mark an unlimited number of times. The renewal of the trademark registration is a kind of extension of the period in which the protection of the trademark right will continue to be in force. Once registered, trademarks can last forever, but only if the owner ensures that they are regularly renewed.

Thus, unlike other objects of intellectual property (patents, utility models, industrial designs and copyrights).

Specificity in trademark renewal

Renewal of registration has some limitations that are good to know before proceeding with trademark registration renewal, and they are:

1. No new goods or services may be added when a trademark is renewed.
2. According to the Bulgarian legislation, it is possible, at the discretion of the rightsholder, for the mark to be renewed for only part of the goods or services. In other words, trademark registration may be fully or partially renewed.
3. Especially in the case of the international registration of a trademark, it may be renewed in respect of all or part of the said Contracting States. However, it may not be renewed for only part of the goods and services entered in the international register. Therefore, if the holder wishes, at the time of renewal, to delete certain goods and services from the international registration, he must apply for deletion specifically for those goods and services.

The ten-year validity period is too long and in many cases, the renewal is inadvertently missed. The consequences of this can be extremely unfavorable for any business. Monitoring the renewal period is the responsibility of the trademark owner.

Normally, an application for renewal of a trademark registration must be filed 6 months before the expiry date of the trademark. The accompanying fee must be paid together with the request for renewal. The renewal is valid from the day following the date on which the existing registration expires and is for a further period of 10 years. If the term is missed, the holder has the opportunity for renewal in the so-called. a grace period during which the trademark has expired, but renewal can still be done by paying a fine.

The renewal fee shall be paid to the national or regional industrial property office which has registered the relevant trademark. Payment shall be made in a currency which is accepted for the territory in which the mark operates – for example, in national currency before the national authorities or in EUR for the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Each Office has an approved tariff, which includes fees for the renewal of registered trademarks. Fees are subject to change and must be checked as of the date of payment.