Trademark registration cost in Poland and the EU. Fees and payments for the year 2024

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A company’s brand is a magnet for customers

Entrepreneurs invest in advertising and customer service to stand out in the market. If they succeed, customers repay such a brand with trust. This already gives a priceless competitive advantage. John Stuart, a director of Quaker corporation, once said:

If I had to divide the company, I would give away the assets, production hall, and equipment, and keep the brand for myself.

And I would be much better off in doing so.

To have full rights to the brand, you must „patent” it. Confirmation of this will be a certificate issued by UPRP or EUIPO. Without this, the free protection that the law still provides you is minimal. See for yourself.

Cost to register a trade mark in Poland

If you want to register your trademark on the territory of Poland, you need to apply to the Polish Patent Office in Warsaw. Everything is regulated by the Industrial Property Law. If there are no obstacles and nobody objects, the whole process should take you about 6 months.

Official fees for trademark registration in Poland

Trademark registration fees in Poland:

a) application:

• the fee for filing a trademark application in one goods class – 450 PLN (if filed electronically – 400 PLN)
• application fee for each additional class – 120 PLN.

b) protection:

• the fee for a 10-year protection period for one goods class – 400 PLN.
• the cost of publishing information about the granted right – 90 PLN.

So, you pay a part of the money (a) at the time of application, and the remaining part (b), only if you receive a positive decision from the expert.

Example fees for trade mark registration in Poland

In 2022, a rather interesting designation „SMILE FACTORY” was filed. The goods class number 44 was indicated, including, among others: dental services.

Therefore, the cost to trademark a name amounted to 890 PLN (400 PLN is the official fee for filing a trademark + 400 PLN for protection + 90 PLN for publication).

NOTE! Ask the patent attorney how to get a grant for the company name and logo application

You can reduce the official trade mark fees for trademark registration by as much as 75% thanks to the EU SME Fund co-financing. The program is aimed at companies from the SME sector, and its upper limit is 1000 EUR. Last year, 100% of the applications I submitted resulted in a grant. I’d be happy to help you get such a grant. Simply write to me via the form.

Cost to register a trade mark in the European Union

If your company also operates outside Poland, you should consider submitting an application for the European Union. The scope of such exclusive rights will cover 27 European Union countries, including naturally our country. You should submit your application to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in Alicante, Spain.

If there are no complications, the procedure should take 5 months.

What is the cost of trade mark registration in the EU?

Trademark registration fees in Europe:

• the fee for filing a trademark in one class – 1000 EUR;
  • the application fee in one class when the application is made online – 850 EUR;

• the price for the second goods class – 50 EUR;
• the amount for each additional class – 150 EUR.

Example fees for trademark registration in the EU

While browsing through the EU trademark databases, I found another interesting example. The fees here were minimal, as the mark is used to label alcoholic beverages (excluding beer) – class 33.

Since everything fit into one class, the cost of registering this figurative mark was 850 EUR.

Also read: Is it better to register a logo or a name?

Madrid protocol. How much does it cost to register a trademark „worldwide”?

Registration of a European Union trademark is attractive because by making one application, you can monopolize all EU countries. Unfortunately, this cannot be done „worldwide” (hence the quotation marks). However, you can specify up to 125 countries in this procedure. The amount of fees will naturally depend on their quantity.

Importantly, within this procedure, you extend the protection of an already registered mark (e.g., in Poland or the EU). Here, you need to submit your application to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) office in Geneva, Switzerland.

What is the cost of registering a trademark?

Trademark protection fee for international registration

• Fees for application and protection for up to three classes:
  • if the mark is not presented in colors – 653 CHF * Swiss francs
  • if the mark is in color – 903 CHF;

• price for each class beyond the third – 100 CHF;

• fee for each specified member state of the agreement – 100 CHF;
  • selected countries have established their own individual fees.

Trademark registration – sample price

Registration of this logo first took place in UE in three classes. Later, it was extended to China through WIPO. The total cost of registering the international trademark was 1402 CHF (903 being the base fee + 499 CHF as the remaining part of the fee for the designated country). Individual fee: 249, Individual fee per additional class: 2 x 125.00(Number of classes beyond 1).

Documents or information. How to protect your company’s brand? Register your company name in the European Union or Poland

By registering it in the appropriate Patent Office.

I discuss why it’s worth making this decision later in the article. Here I will only mention that registering a logo or name gives you legal monopoly on the brand in your niche.

This is guaranteed by the Patent Office!

Confirmation of this will be a certificate of protection. It is an exceptionally beautiful, but also valuable document. It contains information:

• what you are protecting – a name or a logo;
• on what territory;
• in the scope of which goods and services;
• that you are the one entitled to the brand rights.

Trademark protection lasts 10 years. Let me reassure you that it can be later extended for additional 10-year periods. Theoretically, this can be done indefinitely. This is an undeniable advantage considering the patent protection limited to 20 years. The fee for registering a trademark, in the context of the security it provides, is manageable even for smaller companies.

You don’t run a business? Don’t worry, in Poland and the European Union, you can still apply for a legal monopoly on the trademark.

Is company name protection without registration sufficient?

The cost of „patenting” a company brand deters many people. Hence the question arises: are there any regulations that protect them anyway? It turns out that there are, but as I have shown on the maps, its level will most likely only cover the city in which you operate. I discussed the differences between an unregistered and registered trademark below.

Listening to this podcast, you’ll understand the tremendous advantage you gain by having a certificate of protection. From my side, I can only say that the fee for trademark application pays off handsomely during a dispute. Simply conducting it becomes cheaper because you have proof of your rights at hand. Granting protection changes the rules of the game. 🙂

Filing process. Is the fee for trademark registration high?

Of course, the costs involved will be different for everyone.

However, it is a myth that the cost of „patenting” a name or logo is prohibitive for small businesses. As a patent attorney, I can say that small and medium-sized business owners are most often my clients. That’s what the structure of the Polish market looks like.

You should look at the fee for „patenting” a brand from the perspective that it will be valid for 10 years of protection period. It is not possible to pay fees to the patent office in monthly installments. Everything must be paid at once. Hence, the final amount may seem high to some people. However, I made a simulation of fee calculator for trade mark application in 3 classes.

Polish Patent Office

• 1940 PLN – total office fees
• 16 PLN – monthly cost of protection

Protection in the European Union

• 1050 EUR – total office fees
• 39 PLN – monthly for protection in 27 countries
• 1.45 PLN – monthly fee for protection in one country

The costs of trademark protection at the level of 16 or 39 PLN are ridiculously low. Simply, not everyone understands how valuable this investment is.

Commission the examination of the protective capacity of a trademark to the LECH Patent Office

Remember, „patenting” a trademark is not just a formality. For your brand to benefit from enhanced legal protection, it must meet certain requirements.

Most importantly, it cannot be similar to an already registered trademark. In such a case, you would violate the law, and this threatens to block your sales. To avoid this, commission an in-depth examination of your brand to our office. It doesn’t matter if you think the marks are different. The key is how a judge will interpret it.

Even after obtaining a protection certificate, you cannot feel safe. People assume that the received certificate is confirmation that their name does not break the law. This is a myth, which I discuss in detail in the recording below.

Right start. Why is it worth registering a trademark (e.g., a company name for Poland)?

Recently, I summarized my 10-year professional experience. During this time, I have helped many entrepreneurs in disputes over brand rights. The result of my work is a podcast in which I talk about what reserving a company name or logo gives.

Or what threats you avoid thanks to it.

Below I present the five biggest benefits.

1. You prevent theft of your brand

Since a brand can be a magnet for customers, it has a certain value. And this means that some people may be interested in taking it over. This is formally possible if someone tries to apply to register a monopoly on your brand name or logo directly to themselves.

In the Patent Office, trademarks are registered on the principle of:

First come, first served.

The trademark review is made by an expert who does not check whether there are already companies with a similar name on the market. He only waits to see if the owner of the earlier mark will file an opposition. In this way, it is possible to monopolize a logo with an identical appearance!

From my experience, the company’s brand is most often tried to be taken over by:

• former partners or
• employees.

Such people „going on their own” often take part of the team on the occasion. However, they quickly may be wondering that no one knows their new company.

This often becomes the stimulus to impersonate or try to take over the brand of the former employer. In these circumstances, the cost of reserving a brand is nil in the context of the advantage it will give you.

The actions of such people are easily pacified if you are the first to choose to file your trademark for protection. Referring to the certificate of registration obtained in this way, you will easily block the competitor’s application. By incurring the cost of „patenting” the brand, you avoid lengthy court disputes and stories like the one from the recording below.

Trademark Trolls

In the United States, trademark trolls were a significant problem in the 1990s. Their operating model was always the same. Trolls identified companies that did not registered trade marks for their brands and registered them for themselves. They later used the protective rights they gained to blackmail entrepreneurs.

The troll issue grew to such proportions that it led to a change in law. Today in the US, the filing requirements in order to „patent” a mark, it is necessary first to demonstrate that it is being genuinely used. This tied the hands of these kinds of scammers. Unfortunately, there is no such requirement in Polish law.

The result of this is that from time to time we come across cases where, for example, a Polish seller reserves the brand of a Chinese manufacturer. In doing so, they block sales to competing companies. The fee for reserving a brand in the context of the profits a blackmailer can gain is incomparable. For this reason, protect your brand first and foremost. This way, you’ll disappear from the field of interest of patent trolls.

2. You acquire authentic rights to the company’s brand

Many people believe that their rights to a brand result from registering a business activity in the CEIDG (Central Registration and Information on Business) or a company in the National Court Register (KRS) or directly with the intellectual property. However, the truth is that there is a huge mess in this respect in Poland. Officials do not verify whether your company name infringes the law.

In the CEIDG database, I found over 400 TOMBUDs and as many as 800 ARTBUDs.

What rights to the brand can we talk about if hundreds of your competitors use common option as the same or similar terms? The situation looks completely different if you incur the costs associated with requirements for registration of a wordmark, for example, and obtain a certificate of protection.

3. Registration a sign in the Patent Office facilitates the fight against infringers

I wrote that a company’s brand meets the requirements to some extent by being protected by regulations that do not require an application to the Patent Office. However, in a dispute, you will still have to demonstrate:

• from when you used a given term;
• what goods or services you offered;
• in which territory you operated.

Often the situation is such that the entrepreneur’s brand is protected only for certain goods and services. And most importantly, not throughout Poland, but only in the city in which they operate. This, in turn, means that a competitor located several hundred kilometers away operates legally. There is no real risk that their customers will be confused.

And again, you will eliminate all these inconveniences thanks to registration. Brand reservation allows you to save on disputes. No one can question your rights if you have a protection certificate in hand. As a result, you can remove a competitor’s offer from Allegro or Amazon with one email.

4. You can legally use the ® symbol

I have noticed that people associate the characteristic R in a circle with originality. Recently, there was a lot of noise on the internet about a man who accused a certain store of selling fakes. It was about the fact that shoes of a known brand did not have the ® symbol next to the logo.

In reality, the R is an abbreviation of the English word registered and means that the logo or name marked with it is a registered mark. What’s more, the unlawful use of this symbol is punishable by a fine of up to PLN 5,000. There is no obligation to use it.

The ability to obtain the ® symbol adds prestige to the brand, which increases sales.

5. New ways to make money on a trademark

Reserving a trademark allows you to make money on the brand.

Franchise

Stores such as Żabka often operate on a franchise basis. The franchisor shares not only the business model and know-how, but primarily the brand. Certainly, a franchisee opening a point under their own name would not achieve the same level of sales as under the banner of a recognizable brand.

Granting a license

Music bands are a great example of brand commercialization. Many artists register them as trademarks. This allows them to grant licenses to use the logo on clothing or promotional gadgets. Musicians do not deal with production, but often earn a percentage of the sale of such goods.

The cost of reserving a trademark and tax optimization

By registering a trademark, you gain the opportunity for tax optimization. Most often, it involves the owner of such an exclusive right signing a contract with the company for its use. This often allows avoiding double taxation. Notice that costs associated with filing a brand can amount to a few thousand PLN. However, by contributing such a right in-kind to the company, you can save incomparably more on taxes and basic fee.

Securing a bank loan

The value of a brand can be assessed. If an entrepreneur has a high income, this value can be counted in millions. Often, intangible property such as trademarks or patents is worth more than the material goods of the entrepreneur. This is important information, as such a right may serve as collateral for a bank loan. If you do not repay your obligations, the bank will take over your mark and sell it, for example, to your competition.

Rescue in case of bankruptcy

The investment in registering a brand constitutes a fraction of what it can be worth on the market. However, sometimes, even not due to their own fault, a company may run into financial problems.

An example from recent years is the Atlantic brand, which was crippled by the war in eastern Ukraine. The company was forced to sell its assets. Finally, the buyer paid almost 1 million PLN for the name Atlantic, although the fee for reserving the trademark was around 1 thousand PLN! And by this amount, the company reduced its debts. Without formal protection, this would have been legally unfeasible.

Also see:

• Trademark search. How to check if a name is registered?
• Hostile takeover of trademark business name of Chinese companies
• Registering logo as an industrial design. The pros and cons of such a strategy
• The oldest registered trademarks in the world
• Trademark registration cost in Poland