SONN Patentanwälte – IP Attorneys

Change of the start of the 10-year term of protection of Austrian trade mark applications

As a result of the implementation of some provisions of the European Trade Mark Directive (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32015L2436&from=DE), Sec 19 Austrian Trade and Service Marks Law (MSchG), according to which the 10 years of protection are to be calculated from the end of the month in which the trade mark was registered, was amended accordingly. Starting with 1 September 2018, the 10-year term of protection for trade marks registered or due for renewal after that date will be calculated from the filing date; renewal will therefore be due exactly 10 years from the filing date (no „ultimo“ rule). The disadvantage of the unavoidable shortening of the protection period should be moderated by means of a loop-in scheme which reduces the due fees depending on the extent of the shortening. For example, the renewal fee is reduced by 10% if the term of protection has now been shortened to below nine years up to a reduction of minus 90% if the remaining term of protection is less than one year (see https://www.patentamt.at/fileadmin/root_oepa/Dateien/Marken/MA_Infoblaetter/MA_Infoblatt_Jahresgebuehren2017_ROEM.pdf), whereby the amount of the renewal fees has generally been set at EUR 700,00. The fee actually to be paid can be taken from the online database of the Austrian Patent Office: http://seeip.patentamt.at The shortening of the registration's period of protection should be kept to a minimum by streamlining and speeding up the filing procedure before the APO.