- European
2. The Austrian Patent Office is responsible for managing trademark affairs, and the official language is German.
3. Austrian trademark registration follows the principle of "application first", but in some cases, trademark rights can also be claimed through "prior use".
4. Austria adopts the 11th edition of the Nice Classification for product and service descriptions, which can be applied for in one category or multiple categories. The elements that can be registered as trademarks include: textual trademarks, graphic trademarks, three-dimensional logos, color combinations, etc.
Austria is a member of the Madrid Agreement and Madrid Protocol, as well as a member of the European Union. Therefore, trademark registration can be handled through "single country registration", "Madrid international registration" or "EU trademark registration".
The Austrian trademark is valid for 10 years after registration, starting from the date of registration; Renewal can be processed within 12 months before the expiration date, with a grace period of 6 months; The renewal is valid for 10 years.
1. Trademark samples (text, graphics, or combinations);
2. Required Nice classification and product/service items;
3. If the applicant is a company, provide the company's business license; The applicant is an individual and provides their personal ID card;
4. Translation of applicant information documents;
5. Apply for a power of attorney;
6. Embassy authentication, etc;
The main process for applying for registration of an Austrian trademark is: application - examination (absolute reasons) - approval and issuance - announcement.
The application will be accepted within 3-5 working days after submission, and the examiner will conduct formal and substantive examinations on the application. Formal review mainly examines whether the application requirements and classification information comply with regulations; The substantive examination includes the examination of the distinctiveness of the trademark and whether it violates the prohibition and prohibition clauses. If the examination fails, a rejection notice will be issued and the applicant will be required to respond within the time limit specified in the rejection notice. If the substantive examination passes, a registration certificate will be issued and arranged for public announcement.
The opposition period is three months from the date of announcement. Any interested party may raise an objection to the registration of the trademark with the Patent Office. The main reasons for raising an objection are: 1. Conflict with the prior trademark, such as owning a prior registered trademark; 2. The trademark lacks distinctiveness; 3. The trademark has adverse effects; 4. Malicious registration; 5. Conflict with other prior rights, such as trade name rights, design rights, copyrights, personal names, etc.
If there are no objections or objections are not valid during the announcement period, the trademark will be officially registered. In a smooth situation, trademark registration in Austria takes about 10 months; If things don't go smoothly and there are rejections or objections along the way, the time will be greatly extended.
It should be noted that:
Firstly, Austria implements a procedure of issuing a registration certificate first and then announcing it. If there are no objections or objections are not established during the announcement period, the trademark will be officially registered. Therefore, even if a trademark registration certificate is received, it does not mean that the trademark has been successfully registered in Austria.
Secondly, when registering a trademark in Austria, there is no examination of "relative reasons", meaning that the official will not actively review whether the applied trademark is similar to the prior trademark and reject it. Therefore, the trademark is easy to pass the initial review and be announced. This requires the rights holder to continue to pay attention and monitor after the successful application is registered, and to timely raise objections and protect their trademark rights.
