Risks Involved When Failing To Renew The Trademark On Time
Once trademark registered the protection is valid for 10, 15 or 20 years depending on the country where the company is registered. Indefinite protection can be achieved by renewing the mark as it approaches the date of expiry. Failing to file the same can lead to complications like increased renewal fees to losing the protection altogether. A walk through the risks that can happen on failing to process trademark renewal can highlight the importance of trademark renewal on time. Here are some risks involved when failing to file trademark renewal on time:
Losing Trademark to the Competitor
Though rare, as the trademark protection gets lapsed, your competitor can snap the mark by registering a similar mark for their product. Though marks similar to existing trademarks are not applicable or registrable, once the mark loses its protection, similar marks can be theoretically applied. If no other rights with respected to the expired trademark protection are interfered with the competitor’s application, the trademark registration application will not be refused. As result, you will be losing your trademark to the competitor upon failing to consider trademark renewal on time.
Obstacles in Trademark Re-Registration
If you failed to do trademark renewal and looking forward to re-register, you will succeed in doing so only if no similar mark has been registered in the meantime. As per the Intellectual Property Authorities, a mark will be denied registration/re-registration if it is similar to any already registered or newly applied marks. If there weren’t any issues during the registration of the mark, but have arisen since the date of trademark renewal has missed, then your attempts to re-register the trademark will be denied.
Limited Countries
If your trademark renewal has lapsed in multiple countries, and if a new identical mark has been registered in these countries, then your possibility of re-registering the mark will be limited geographically. Failing your re-register your mark in certain geographies can further hinder your opportunity to expand and yield profits. So, not just regionally, failing to do trademark renewal on time can turn out to be a costly affair internationally too.
Late Trademark Renewal Fees
If not met with any of the aforementioned potential issues, the owner has the opportunity to renew his/her mark but with an additional late fee. In general, majority of the national IP offices give a grace period of 6 months for the owners to apply for renewal even after passing the trademark renewal period. However, filing trademark renewal after the renewal date will incur greater charges than filing trademark renewal on time.
So, make sure to file your trademark renewal on time than having to overcome the risks involved in failing to renew your mark on time.