A registered trademark has to be used within five years. If not, the expiration of this trademark can be invoked. Until recently, this could only be done through an (expensive) court procedure. Since June 1st 2018 there is an alternative way to achieve this. From that day onward, any interested party can initiate administrative proceedings with the Benelux trademark authorities to invoke the lapse of a Benelux trademark that is not used (or to request the nullity of a descriptive trademark). The costs for this are fairly small. » trademark-registration

Colours can be trademarks. For many, the colour combination of blue and silver, is sufficient to recognize the Red Bull energy drink. In order to protect this colour combination, Red Bull has filed two trademarks, consisting of a survey with the two colours, accompanied with a description. The question here is, if these filing are sufficiently clear to meet the legal requirements. » trademark-registration

This spring, a little more became clear about on the effects of Brexit on companies with an EU trademark / EU registered design. The European Commission has published a draft agreement on this subject. The key being that after the exit companies in England should automatically keep similar rights. Although this is only a draft, the expectation is that the final result will not be much different from this. » trademark-registration

An International trademark registration provides relatively cheap and easy protection abroad. Therefore, an increasing number of countries is joining the treaty, like Indonesia. The registration process is not only cheaper, but quicker as well. Maintenance of the rights is also cheaper. » trademark-registration

A word trademark registration covers the use of the word in every writing style. For that reason, companies prefer registering trademarks in standard characters. So if the logo chances, the word will still be protected via the wordmark registration. However, sometimes the design of the logo does not clearly reveal which word it contains. In these cases the logo should be protected as a trademark as well. The LOCK-case is a good example. The holder of the German word trademark LOCK files a cancellation action against the European trademark LOCKMASTER. Both trademarks distinguish electric motors. The wordmark LOCK is older than 5 years, so the use of the trademark must be proven. » trademark-registration