Why do I recommend registering a trademark?

A trademark has the ability to distinguish your company's goods or services from those of other companies. It guarantees the consumer or end customer the identity of the origin of the products marked with them, namely that these goods and services originate from your company.

The ideas about the origin of a product usually go hand in hand with ideas about the quality of the product, which has a major impact on the purchasing decisions of the consumer or end user. Among other things, positive experiences of customers are linked to your trademark. Your company's image or reputation is also reflected in your trademark.

In addition, the trademark registration offers extensive protection against counterfeiting and misuse and nationwide for a DE trademark or Europe-wide for an EU trademark. In addition, protection in up to 122 countries can be achieved via the Madrid system with only one application.

 see a great advantage of the registered trademark in the fact that the protection can in principle continue indefinitely as long as the renewal fee is paid in due time every 10 years. In this way a trademark can be preserved for future generations. 

The eligibility of the certification mark

Seals, labels, quality and certification signs (hereinafter referred to as quality signs) are of enormous importance nowadays. You will hardly find a product on the shelves of shopping stores that does not have some third party quality sign on it. In Germany alone there are more than 1,000 such quality marks which promise consumers certain quality standards.

Some of these quality signs are registered as individual trademarks. The trademark owner then grants a license to use his trademark to those companies whose products meet certain requirements of the trademark owner. When using an individual trademark as a quality mark, it is problematic whether this form of use fulfils the requirements of genuine trademark use, as the trademark may not be used in accordance with its main function, namely as an indication of origin (see ECJ decision of 8 June 2017; C-689/15). In the worst case, the trademark may be attackable within the meaning of Art. 58 I lit. a) of the Union Trademark Regulation and may be revoked.

The "new" certification mark offers a legally secure and transparent trademark form in the German trademark system (in the Union since 2017), which should take into account the growing needs of commercial transactions for quality and quality-indicating labels.

A certification mark is a sign intended to attest to certain characteristics of the goods and services, such as their quality, accuracy, material or the way in which the goods are manufactured or the services are provided.

The trademark application must be accompanied by a certicfication mark regulations in which, among other things, the trademark applicant declares that he himself is not engaged in any activity that includes the delivery of goods or services for which a guarantee is given. This ensures the trademark owner's neutrality with regard to the interests of the manufacturers of the goods or the providers of the services for which he gives the guarantee. Therefore, the "new" certification mark is a good addition to the German trademark system in my eyes.