Owners of Romanian TMs and IRs Designating Romania Invited to Specify the Scope of Goods and Services by September 30

The new trademark law entered into force in Romania on July 13, 2020. It transposes into national legislation Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 16, 2015 to approximate the laws of the EU member states relating to trademarks.

The law adopts the literal approach when interpreting class headings. According to this practice, which was initiated by the EUIPO in March 2013, when class headings are used to designate the scope of protection in trademark applications and registrations, they will not be interpreted as covering all goods or services in their class but will rather be interpreted literally.

Owners of both Romanian and international trademarks designating Romania registered before July 13, 2020 which use entire class headings of the Nice Classification are invited to file a declaration. This option is not available for registrations using only parts of class headings.

If you have a trademark registered in Romania and all the goods or services for which you intended to obtain protection are covered by the literal meaning of the class heading, you do not need to take any action. However, if you intended to obtain protection for goods or services that are included in the alphabetical list of the class, but are not clearly covered by the literal meaning of the class heading, you should consider filing the declaration.

When making the declaration, trademark owners can only use the wording from the alphabetical list of the Nice Classification in force on the date of filing the trademark application. They are not allowed to provide their own specifications.

There is no obligatory form provided for the declaration, and no official fee.

If a declaration is not filed by September 30, 2020, it will be interpreted that the trademark is registered for the goods or services designated by the literal meaning of the class heading.

For more information, please contact PETOŠEVIĆ Romania Head of Office Ms. Aura Campeanu.