- European
2. The "China National Intellectual Property Administration of Malta" is responsible for the unified management of trademark affairs, and the official languages are Maltese and English.
3. The trademark system in Malta is a single class system.
4. Maltese law stipulates that joint trademarks and commodity trademarks under the name of an applicant can apply for registration, but there is no provision on whether collective trademarks can be registered.
5. Malta uses the International Classification of Goods, and when submitting an application, the applicant should submit it separately according to the different categories of goods. The goods and services are classified according to the International Nice Classification.
Malta is a signatory to international intellectual property treaties such as the Paris Convention, the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Trademark Law Treaty, and the TRIPS Agreement, and is also a member of the European Union. Therefore, trademark registration in Malta can be handled through either the "single country registration" or the "EU trademark registration" method.
The trademark exclusive right is valid for 10 years from the date of application, and the validity period for each renewal registration is 10 years. It can be processed 6 months in advance; The expansion period is 6 months.
1. Applicant's name and address;
2. The categories and names of goods/services that require protection;
3. Trademark design;
4. Signing of power of attorney;
5. A statement requesting priority in the event that the applicant wishes to take advantage of an earlier application.
After the trademark application is submitted, formal examination and substantive examination (including examination of relative and absolute reasons) shall be conducted.
Formal examination mainly examines whether the application requirements and classification information comply with regulations, while substantive examination includes examination of the distinctiveness of the trademark, whether it violates the prohibition and prohibition clauses, and whether it conflicts with prior trademarks.
After the trademark application is reviewed and approved, if there are no reasons for rejection, the trademark application will be approved and announced. The announcement period is 2 months, during which any interested party may raise objections.
If there is no objection or the objection is rejected, the trademark registration is completed.
In general, trademark registration in Malta takes about six to eight months, and if there are objections or other situations during this period, the time will be correspondingly extended.
