Did you receive a ‘Notice of absence of formal requirements’ from the EUIPO?

Before publishing your EU trademark application, the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) will examine if the formal requirements are met.

If you are located outside of the European Economic Area, the deficiency will usually be a lack of local representation. The EUIPO’s notice will read along the lines of:

“No representative has been appointed. According to Article 119(2) EUTMR, natural or legal persons not having either their domicile or their principal place of business or a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in the European Economic Area must be represented before the Office in all proceedings other than filing an application for a European Union trade mark. The representative appointed must be from within the European Economic Area. Article 120(1) EUTMR sets out who may act as a representative before the Office. A list of representatives can be found through eSearch on the Office website.”

While companies from any country can file an EU trademark application, only those established in the EEA can do so without a local representative.

As registered EUIPO Trademark & Design Attorneys, we can help you solve this type of deficiency. For instance, the above issue can be solved by us registering at the EUIPO as the representative for your application. In most cases, the cost for this action is only € 70,00 per trademark application.

If you don’t remedy formal deficiencies, the EUIPO will refuse your trademark application. You will not get your filing fees refunded.

The deadline to remedy the deficiency will be mentioned on the EUIPO’s notice. It’s usually 2 months. So don’t hesitate, and contact us for assistance.