You can protect your trademark forever, in principle. It’s just a question of renewing your trademark registration every 10 years. There’s been no change to your logo? Is your business still offering the same products and services? It will just take you a few seconds. If something has changed, then you must first check whether your trademark still ‘covers’ your current situation.
- You can protect your trademark forever.
- Simply renew your trademark registration every 10 years.
- Make sure you first check though whether you want to modify your registration.
- If you don’t renew your registration, your trademark right will expire automatically.
6 months before expiration of your trademark registration, you will receive a reminder from BOIP that your trademark rights are about to expire. That gives you plenty of time to decide what you want to do with your trademark registration:
- renew without any changes;
- allow it to expire completely;
- apply for a new trademark;
- restrict your current trademark.
We explain the options further for you below. It's your choice.
Option 1: Renew (extend) your trademark without any changes
Does your company logo still look the same? Do the products and services for which you registered your trademark still cover the scope of your business? If so, you only need to renew (extend) your trademark registration. You can do that online, in My BOIP, from 6 months prior to the date of expiration and up to 6 months after the date of expiration.
Renewal before the date of expiration costs (from) €263. For renewal within 6 months after the date of expiration, the renewal fee is due with an additional fee of €135. Check all the costs for renewal
Option 2: Allow your trademark to expire
Maybe you no longer use your trademark? Perhaps you are also not going to use it in the future any more either? If so, then you can decide not to renew your trademark registration. You don't have to do anything; your trademark will expire automatically. If, after a while, you change your mind, you must apply again to register a trademark – and, therefore, also go through the whole procedure once again.
Take care of your trademark, also after you have registered it
On our page 'All about trademarks' we have set out everything you need to think about after registering your trademark.
Option 3: Apply for a new trademark
A lot can change in 10 years. Maybe you have changed your logo, maybe you have increased or decreased your service offer, or maybe you have started down a different road. All of that can have consequences for possible renewal of your trademark registration. Note: a trademark itself – the way it is written, for example, or a logo – can never be changed on renewal.
- Have you changed your logo? Apply to register a new trademark. Let’s suppose you are a copywriter, and you use a logo that depicts a fountain pen. You registered that logo almost 10 years ago but in the meantime, you use a more modern logo, with a keyboard instead of a fountain pen. You cannot change a registered logo. Furthermore, because the logo in the trademark registration is no longer up to date, it makes little sense to renew that trademark. If you want to protect your new logo, you must apply to register a new trademark.
- Are you offering new services? Apply to register a new trademark. Suppose you registered your logo for editing texts (class 41). In the meantime, you now also design text editing software (class 42). That new service does not fall under the services you registered your logo for. Once you have submitted the application for your trademark, it is not possible to widen the range of (products and) services you have registered your trademark for. It means that you must apply for a new trademark registration for the new services. You can renew (extend) the old trademark registration and you will then have 2 trademark registrations for your logo: 1 for class 41 and 1 for class 42.
Option 4: Restrict your trademark
Suppose you have stopped a particular activity. In that case, you will want to restrict the list of products and services for which you registered your trademark. You can do that when you renew (extend) your trademark registration online. If you wish, you can exclude an entire class that you no longer need.
Or perhaps you only want to remove a particular term in a class? In that case, you must file a so-called ‘limitation of goods or services’. This can be done either before or after you renew your trademark. You can file such a restriction using the Contact form. The fee is €46 per trademark.
Renew (extend) my trademark now
Are you encountering problems?
If you need help with renewing (extending) your trademark, we will be happy to help you further. Call or email our Information Centre.
