Having your Trade Mark Cake and Eating it Too: Backdated Applications
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Many of our trade mark clients are eager to expand abroad, but new project budgets do not always allow a full programme of international applications to commence at once.
When our clients come to us with requests like this, they are able to take advantage of what is known as the Paris Convention Priority Date.
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This provision under the Convention means that, if you decide to extend your rights abroad within six months of your original UK or EU application, the new application will be treated as if you had made it on the same day as your original application.
This may sound like a legal technicality, and it is! But there is an important reason to take advantage of this service and register sooner rather than later: In trade mark matters, the important date is the date of filing of the application.
When your application is officially registered a few months down the line, the filing date is the one from which your rights will begin, and so you can effectively backdate your international brand protection by as much as six months. The effect of this can be significant.
If someone copies your brand before you register it in the new country, you may be able to exercise the same rights to stop if the new application was filed within six months of the previous application, because your protection will effectively backdate to the date of the previous application.
So if you have applied for a trade mark in the last six months, and are interested in broadening and securing your wider customer base, you should act as soon as possible and contact us before your priority period runs out.
For more information, contact Fiona Rodgers fcr@silvermansherliker.co.uk or Neil Eagleton nde@silvermansherliker.co.uk of our Intellectual Property team, or call us on +44 (0)20 7749 2700. |
