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As a small business owner, establishing your intellectual property (IP) rights is vital, especially as your business grows. Understanding the different elements of IP, like trademarks, copyrights, and designs, as well as how they’re registered and applied in different markets, will help you protect your creative work.
At the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), we’re committed to supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout the EU by raising awareness on the importance of protecting IP rights and by providing relevant tools, services, and resources for SMEs.
In this article, we’ll cover a number of ways to protect your intellectual property rights in the EU and share a variety of EUIPO resources and initiatives relevant to EU-based SMEs.
We have created a specific landing page on IP to support online sellers in e-commerce marketplaces. You can find here the basic IP information, the EUIPO supportive initiatives, such as financial support, and online filing of EU trade marks registrations.
What is the EUIPO’s role and its mission?
The EUIPO is responsible for managing the EU trademark (EUTM) and the Registered Community Design (RCD). In a market of more than 500 million consumers, the EUIPO registers around 180,000 EU trademarks and close to 100,000 designs annually.
Common types of intellectual property rights
Copyright
Copyright protects works of authorship like books, movies, music, or other artistic works.
Copyright creates a special legal relationship between author(s) and their work, with the author(s) generally defined as the person who created the work. Legal protection of copyright in the EU lasts until 70 years after the death of the author or the last surviving author, in the case of joint authorship.
How to register:
Unlike some other areas of intellectual property law, there’s not a universal EU copyright; each of the Member States have their own copyright laws and policies. You can learn more about EU copyright legislation in this EUIPO consumers FAQ.
Protected designs
A design is the specific appearance of a product (or part of a product) which may result from unique lines, contours, colors, shape, texture, and/or materials. To protect a design, it must be new and have individual character.
Registering a design protects the appearance of the product. Moreover it is dependent on the actual existence of the product. If there is no product, there is generally no protection.
How to register:
You can submit a single online application to register your design through the EUIPO. Registered Community Designs (RCD) provide uniform protection of a design throughout the 27 EU Member States. Having an RCD provides its owner the exclusive right to use it, and to prevent any third party from using it in the EU without the owner’s consent. An RCD is initially valid for 5 years from the filing date and can be renewed for 5-year periods, up to a maximum of 25 years.
Trademark
A trademark (sometimes referred to as “TM") protects the commercial origin of a product or service. That is, trademarks serve to distinguish specific products or services and the companies offering them from their competition. There are different types of trademarks that can be registered in the EU, including: word, figurative (graphic element), color, sound, shape, motion, and multimedia marks.
Registering a trademark helps to protect the owner’s brand and serves as a legal tool to defend it against trademark infringement by competitors.
Trademarks are a territorial right: The owner will only get protection in the territory where the trademark is registered. Registration lasts for an initial duration of 10 years, and can be renewed indefinitely, for 10 years at a time.
How to register:
You can register trademarks at the national, entire EU, or international level (via the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)). Financial support is available for EU SMEs across all registration systems through the SME Fund.
How to register an EU trademark
You can apply for an European Union trademark (EUTM) using the EUIPO Easy Filing form. Once registered, your EUTM grants exclusive rights and protection in all 27 EU Member States.
Easy Filing is a streamlined three-step form designed for SMEs and individuals in the European Economic Area who are applying to register a word or figurative trademark without a legal representative. The Easy Filing form generally expedites the review process by half the time it takes to process regular applications, provided that the conditions are met. Another benefit is a virtual assistant that will guide you through the application process, even on mobile.
Some tips before submitting an Easy Filing form:
- It’s important to differentiate your trademark sign from similar existing trademarks. Before applying for an EUTM, it’s strongly recommended to do a thorough search to check if there are similar TMs already registered. These searches can be done using eSearch plus or TMview, which are free online trademark databases, including EU and national registered trademarks.
- Consider picking a distinctive and non-descriptive sign to reduce the risk of rejection during the substantive examination at the EUIPO.
- A distinctive sign allows consumers to distinguish the goods and services of one trader from those of another.
- Non-descriptiveness means that the sign is not exclusively a description of the item (i.e. value, quality, subject).
- Use the EUIPO’s Harmonized Database to determine the types of goods and/or services you’re seeking to protect with your trademark to ensure that the list of terms will be accepted.
More information about the registration process and requirements can be found at the EUIPO Route to registration page.
Apply for reimbursement of IP protection fees via the SME Fund
2023 SME Fund
The Idea Powered for business SME Fund is aimed at supporting innovation and entrepreneurship among small and medium-sized businesses. Financial support provided by the European Commission and the EUIPO to EU SMEs include:
- Trade mark and design protection within the European Union (national, regional, EU level) for 75% of the fees up; and for international registration procedures (WIPO) for 50% of the fees to a maximum of EUR 1,000
- Patent protection within the European Union (national patents and European patents) for 75% of the fees up to a maximum of EUR 1,500
- Plant variety protection at European level for 50% of the fees to a maximum of EUR 225
- Reimbursement of 90% of the cost of an IP scan to help define an intellectual property strategy for your business
Additional resources
- Visit the EUIPO´s landing page for e-commerce marketplaces with IP information and services for online sellers
- Visit the EUIPO’s Ideas Powered for business website for more information on the importance of intellectual property rights and resources for European small business owners.
- Access free personalised intellectual property support for EU-based SMEs.
Other helpful Etsy links
- Check out Etsy’s Ultimate Guide to Intellectual Property for guidance on how to own and grow your brand on Etsy and beyond.
- Visit the Etsy Reporting Portal, an easier way to register your brand and report listings that you suspect may violate your intellectual property rights.
Words by European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)
The EUIPO is committed to supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout the EU by raising awareness on the importance of protecting IP rights and by providing relevant tools and supporting various activities for SMEs.
