In Portugal and across the European Union, protection goes to the applicant rather than the user. You can trade under a name for years and discover one morning that somebody else quietly registered it — and that the claim is now against you. Start below: type the name and see what stands in its way.
Protection exists only in the classes you claim. Too few and a competitor can use your name in an adjacent category; too many and you pay for coverage you never use, and expose the registration to a non-use challenge.
Each level is a different office and a different ratio of price to reach. Buying more territory than the business actually touches is a common and avoidable expense.
The right first step when the market is domestic, or when you want a Portuguese right secured before expanding. Fast and inexpensive, and it can later be extended internationally.
A single registration covering the whole Union. Usually the best value for any business selling, or planning to sell, beyond Portugal — and far cheaper than filing country by country.
Extends a Portuguese or EU mark into markets outside the Union — the United States, the United Kingdom, the Gulf, Latin America — through one filing administered centrally.
A registration is only as solid as the search and the classification behind it. We do the unglamorous preparatory work, because a mark that sails through filing and collapses at the first dispute protects nobody.
We search the relevant registers for similar marks in your classes and assess the real risk of refusal or opposition. This is where a bad idea costs you nothing instead of everything.
Goods and services are mapped to the Nice classes. Too narrow leaves gaps a competitor can occupy; too wide inflates the fees and invites a non-use challenge after five years.
The application goes to INPI, EUIPO or through WIPO depending on the territory chosen, with the representation, the owner details and the specification in the form each office expects.
We answer any objection from the office and run the opposition window, during which third parties may challenge the mark. A clean search beforehand is what keeps this step uneventful.
The certificate issues, and the work changes character: monitoring the registers for conflicting applications, and renewing before the right lapses.
Once the mark is on the register the question changes from obtaining it to keeping it. New applicants appear, similar brands launch, marketplaces fill with copies.
We watch the registers on your behalf, catch conflicts early while they are still cheap to stop, and escalate to formal action only when it is warranted. Quiet vigilance costs far less than litigation.
A clearance search finds registered and pending marks. It cannot find unregistered rights someone has built through use, marks about to be filed but not yet published, or how an examiner will exercise judgement on similarity. We give you the risk honestly rather than the reassurance you were hoping for.
Or, too often, just after it.
If you sell only in Portugal, a national registration at INPI is enough and costs a fraction of the alternative. The moment you have sales or firm plans in other member states, a single EU mark covering all 27 is almost always better value than filing separately. We advise on where your customers actually are, not where they theoretically might be.
Marks are registered for specific categories of goods and services under the international Nice Classification, and protection exists only in the classes you claim. Claim too narrowly and a competitor can use your name in an adjacent category. Claim too widely and you pay for coverage you never use, while exposing the registration to cancellation for non-use after five years. Getting the specification right is most of the work.
An EU mark with no opposition typically registers within a few months; a national mark can be quicker. The variable is opposition: third parties have a window in which to object, and if they do, the timeline extends considerably. A proper clearance search at the start is the best protection against that surprise.
It depends on who registered first, in which classes and in which territory. Sometimes there is room for both. Sometimes there is clear infringement. And sometimes — we will say this plainly — the exposure is yours. We assess the position honestly, including the uncomfortable version, before proposing a demand letter, an opposition, a coexistence agreement or a rebrand.
Effectively, if you maintain it. Registration runs in ten-year terms and renews indefinitely. But it can be cancelled for non-use, and it requires active defence against encroachment. We handle renewals and monitoring so the right does not lapse quietly or dilute through neglect.
No — a foreign individual or company can be the applicant. But if you are setting up in Portugal anyway, it is cleaner to do both together so the mark is registered to the correct entity from the start rather than assigned later. We coordinate this with company formation.
Send us the name, the logo and the markets. We run the clearance search, propose the territories and classes, and give you a clear route to a right that can actually be enforced.