When you sell on Amazon or other marketplaces, your brand name is one of the few things competitors cannot take from you overnight, provided it is legally protected. We see this with the manufacturers we bring onto marketplaces. For SuperProfile, a manufacturer of building profiles, registering the brand in Brand Registry was one of the first steps, and its sales across 7 marketplaces grew by more than 90% year on year in 2025, to over €425,000. Below we explain how much it costs to register a trade mark with the EUIPO, how long it takes, how to go through the procedure step by step and what to watch out for if the trade mark is meant to support your brand on Amazon. The fees and rules we quote reflect the EUIPO website as at 3 November 2026.
What is the EUIPO?
The EUIPO, or European Union Intellectual Property Office, is the EU agency based in Alicante, Spain, that registers EU trade marks (EUTMs) and designs. A single application gives you the exclusive right to a trade mark in every country of the European Union, a market that the EUIPO puts at almost 500 million consumers.
A trade mark itself is a sign, most often a name or a logo, that distinguishes the goods or services of one business from those of others. Registration gives you trade mark rights in a defined territory, and for as long as protection lasts, your trade mark is protected against similar signs used by competitors for similar goods. The scope of that protection is set by the list of goods and services you specify in your application.
An EU trade mark works on an “all or nothing” basis: the EUIPO registers it for the whole Union or not at all. If an application fails because of a problem in only part of the EU, for example an earlier trade mark in one country, it can be converted into national applications in the remaining countries while keeping the filing date of the EU application. This is what sets the EU office apart from national offices, which protect a trade mark only in their own country. If you sell, or plan to sell on Amazon, in several EU countries, a trade mark registered in just one country will not protect you in your other markets, because someone else can file a similar name there.
How does the EUIPO differ from national offices and WIPO?
The EUIPO, national offices and WIPO differ above all in the territory where they protect a trade mark. A national office in an EU country registers a trade mark only in that country, the EUIPO registers a trade mark for the whole European Union with a single application, and the Madrid System run by WIPO lets you extend protection to countries outside the EU, such as the US, the UK or China. According to the EUIPO, these three systems complement each other and run in parallel.
National offices in EU countries have their own fees and procedures, and the trade marks they register protect a brand only in their own country. In practice, a business that sells in one country often settles for a national trade mark. A business launching on Amazon in several EU countries at once needs an EU trade mark, because separate applications in each country would be more expensive and harder to manage. So the choice between a national office and the EUIPO depends mainly on where you sell today and where you want to be selling in a few years’ time. If you sell on Amazon in the US, you need to think about WIPO or about filing directly with the US office (USPTO). A WIPO application is always based on an earlier application or registration, for example an EU one or one with a national office, so you cannot start with WIPO.
Does an EUIPO trade mark cover the UK?
No. Since 1 January 2021, EU trade marks have not covered the United Kingdom, as the UK Intellectual Property Office confirms. EU trade marks registered before that date automatically received comparable UK trade marks, but a new EU trade mark covers the EU only. If you plan to sell on Amazon.co.uk, you need a separate trade mark filed with the UK office (UKIPO) or an extension of protection through WIPO.
How much does it cost to register a trade mark with the EUIPO?
Registering a trade mark with the EUIPO costs €850 for an online application in one class of goods or services. A second class costs an extra €50, and each class from the third onwards €150, so the cost depends above all on the number of classes, because the official fees go up with every class you add. A paper application costs €1,000 for the first class. The fee covers registration and the first 10 years of protection throughout the European Union, after which the trade mark can be renewed for further 10-year periods with no limit.
The basic fee must be paid within one month of the date on which the EUIPO receives the application, because examination only starts once it has been paid. According to the EUIPO fees page, fees are non-refundable: the EUIPO does not give the money back if it refuses registration, and if you withdraw the application, it refunds the fee only if you withdraw it on or before the day of payment. These fees are exempt from VAT, and the EUIPO itself does not issue invoices. On top of the official fees, budget for the cost of a trade mark attorney or law firm if you hire them to run trade mark searches before filing and to prepare the list of goods and services. You request renewal in the 6 months before the registration expires, and if you miss that deadline, you can still do so within a further 6 months for a 25% surcharge.
Beware of invoices that do not come from the EUIPO
After filing and publication, many businesses receive letters asking them to pay for an entry in a register, for publication or for renewal of protection. The EUIPO stresses that it never sends invoices or letters requesting payment for services, and on its page about misleading invoices it publishes more than 560 examples of such requests from companies that have nothing to do with the Office. If you receive a letter like this, do not pay until you have checked who sent it.
Can you reduce the cost of registering with the EUIPO?
The SME Fund lets small and medium-sized businesses in the EU recover part of the cost of protecting their intellectual property. According to the EUIPO, the refund on applications for IP rights can reach 75%, depending on the country, and for trade marks it means a partial refund of the official registration fees. In 2026 the fund runs from 2 February to 4 December, but according to the EUIPO the trade mark and design voucher is not currently accepting new applications, because high demand has used up the available funds. The vouchers for patents and Community plant variety rights are still available. The EUIPO encourages you to check the fund’s page regularly, but when you plan your budget, assume that you will cover the full trade mark application fee yourself.
If the trade mark voucher comes back, get the order right: you have to apply for the voucher and be granted it before you file your trade mark, and the partial refund is paid directly into the business’s bank account. The voucher application can be submitted by the business owner, an employee or an authorised representative. The second way to lower costs is a sensible list of goods and services. Every class beyond the second costs €150, so there is no point adding classes just in case, especially as a trade mark that goes unused in a given class can be lost after some years.
How do you register a trade mark with the EUIPO step by step?
Registering a trade mark with the EUIPO starts with checking whether the name is available and ends with the publication of the registration and the certificate. You can complete the whole procedure online, on your own or with a trade mark attorney.
- Check that the trade mark is available. Search the free TMview database, which holds applications and registrations from the EUIPO, all national offices in the EU and many offices outside it. What most often derails an application is an earlier registered, similar trade mark for similar goods.
- Prepare your list of goods and services. Decide which of the 45 classes of the Nice classification your protection should cover, and pick ready-made terms from the TMclass tool. Offices have already accepted these terms, so the EUIPO processes the application faster. Once you have filed, you cannot add new goods or services.
- Choose the type of trade mark. A word mark is the name alone, written in standard characters, while a figurative mark, including a figurative mark containing word elements, is the name with a logo, stylisation or colour. A word mark protects the name whatever it looks like, and a logo on its own without the name is not enough for Amazon Brand Registry.
- File the application online. The form is on the EUIPO website, and you handle correspondence with the Office in the User Area. You enter the trade mark owner’s details: for a business, its full name, legal form, country of incorporation and address.
- Pay the application fee. You have one month from the date the EUIPO receives the application. You can pay by card, by bank transfer or from a current account held with the EUIPO.
- Wait for the examination. The EUIPO checks the classification and formalities, then the absolute grounds for refusal, for example whether the trade mark directly describes the goods being sold, and finally translates the application and publishes it in the EU Trade Marks Bulletin. You can follow the status in the eSearch plus database or in the User Area.
- Get through the opposition period. For 3 months from publication, anyone with an earlier right can file an opposition. If no one does, or the opposition is rejected, the trade mark is registered.
- Receive your registration certificate. The EUIPO publishes the registration and issues the certificate of registration free of charge. From then on you can mark your brand with the ® symbol, which must not be used with an unregistered trade mark.
At Raise Your Sales we help clients enrol their brand in Amazon Brand Registry once the trade mark has been filed.
How long does it take to register a trade mark with the EUIPO?
Registering a trade mark with the EUIPO takes at least a few months, because after examination and publication of the application there is always a 3-month opposition period. In our experience, if there is no opposition and nothing is missing from the application, it usually takes around 4 to 5 months from filing to registration.
Oppositions are not unusual: according to the EUIPO, one in five EU trade mark applications receives one, and the opponent pays €320 to file it. That is when opposition proceedings begin. The EUIPO checks whether the opposition is admissible, the parties are given a cooling-off period to reach an agreement, they then exchange their arguments, and finally a decision is issued, which can add many months to the procedure. If the EUIPO refuses registration, you have 2 months from the decision to file an appeal and 4 months to file the statement of grounds.
That is why we advise clients who are planning a product launch on Amazon with Brand Registry to file their trade mark at least six months before sales begin. This leaves a buffer in case of an opposition or gaps in the application. You do not always have to wait for the procedure to finish, though, because in some cases Amazon accepts a pending trade mark for Brand Registry, as we explain below.
Can I file a trade mark myself, or do I need a trade mark attorney?
A business based in the European Economic Area, which covers every EU country, can file a trade mark with the EUIPO itself, without a representative. According to the EUIPO, a professional representative is mandatory only for applicants who have no domicile, principal place of business or real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in the EEA.
Filing on your own makes sense for a simple word mark and a clear list of goods. A trade mark attorney, a law firm or an IP lawyer can take care of the registration formalities for you and is especially useful when a TMview search turns up similar trade marks, when the goods are hard to describe in the list or when someone files an opposition. We help you work out which markets and which Amazon categories the brand will be sold in, because that determines where, and in which classes, it is worth protecting.
Why does an Amazon seller need an EUIPO trade mark?
An Amazon seller needs a trade mark registered with the EUIPO above all to enrol the brand in Amazon Brand Registry. Amazon requires a trade mark issued by the office of a country where it has a store, and an EU trade mark covers every EU member state, so a single application is enough for Amazon’s EU stores, such as Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.es and Amazon.pl.
Brand Registry gives you access to tools you do not get without an enrolled brand, such as A+ Content, Brand Stores, Sponsored Brands ads and violation reporting. We describe them in our guide to registering your brand in Amazon Brand Registry. On Amazon, a brand that is not enrolled in the programme is in a weaker position than a competitor that is, even when the products are of the same quality.
Is an EUIPO application number enough for Brand Registry?
As soon as you file with the EUIPO, you receive an application number, and in some cases Amazon lets you enrol a brand in Brand Registry on the basis of a trade mark that is still going through registration, before the office takes its final decision. The exact requirements for each office are shown once you log in. The Transparency programme, in which Amazon protects products with unique codes, works differently: it requires an active, registered trade mark, so if you plan to join it, the timing of your EUIPO registration determines when you can start.
How do word marks and figurative marks affect Brand Registry?
Amazon accepts a word mark or a figurative mark containing words, letters or numbers, and the text of the trade mark must match the brand name in your application. A logo on its own without any text does not meet this requirement. That is why, for a brand you intend to sell on Amazon, the safest choice is to file a word mark: it protects the name regardless of typeface and colour, and if you change your logo, you do not have to file a new trade mark.
What are the most common mistakes when filing a trade mark with the EUIPO?
The most common mistake is filing without checking whether a similar trade mark already exists. The result is an opposition from the owner of the earlier trade mark, a lost fee, because the EUIPO does not refund it, and finding yourself back at square one a few months later.
The second mistake is a poorly prepared list of goods and services. If it is too narrow, it does not protect what you actually sell, and you cannot add new items after filing. If it is too broad, it raises the fee and the risk of conflict with other trade marks, and under the rules a trade mark that you have not put to genuine use in the EU for 5 years after registration can be revoked at the request of another business.
The third mistake is a name that describes the product, for example “e-mattresses” for a mattress shop. Applications for signs like this usually end in refusal, because words that directly describe the goods on sale should remain free for everyone to use. The fourth is filing only a logo where the name is what matters, which on Amazon closes the door to Brand Registry. The fifth is paying for letters that merely pretend to come from the EUIPO.
EUIPO or a national IP office: which should you choose if you sell in several EU markets?
If you sell, or plan to sell, in more than one EU market, the EUIPO usually works out cheaper and simpler than separate applications in each country: one application, one language of proceedings, one fee and protection in 27 countries at once.
If you sell in several EU markets, a single EUIPO application replaces separate national registrations.A national office makes sense when your sales are limited to one country and you are not planning to launch on Amazon in other EU countries in the next few years. Bear in mind the “all or nothing” principle, though: if an earlier, similar trade mark exists in one country, the EU application can fail as a whole, in which case it can be converted into national applications wherever there is no conflict. The EUIPO is a bit like an Interrail pass for your brand: you buy one ticket and travel on it across the whole EU, except that this ticket is valid for 10 years and can be renewed.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to register a trade mark with the EUIPO?
An online application with the EUIPO costs €850 for one class, plus €50 for the second class and €150 for the third and each further class. The fee covers the first 10 years of protection throughout the EU and is not refunded if the EUIPO refuses registration.
How long does EUIPO registration take?
Registering a trade mark with the EUIPO takes at least a few months, because once the application has been published there is a 3-month opposition period. In our experience, it takes around 4 to 5 months if there is no opposition, while an opposition extends the procedure by many months.
Can I get SME Fund support for a trade mark in 2026?
The SME Fund runs until 4 December 2026, but its trade mark and design voucher has run out and is not accepting new applications. Keep an eye on the fund’s page, but budget for the full EUIPO application fee.
Does an EU business need a trade mark attorney to file with the EUIPO?
No. Businesses based in the European Economic Area can file a trade mark with the EUIPO themselves. A representative is mandatory only for applicants from outside the EEA.
Is an EUIPO application number enough for Amazon Brand Registry?
In some cases Amazon lets you enrol a brand on the basis of a trade mark that is still going through registration, and the exact requirements are shown once you log in to Brand Registry. The Transparency programme, however, requires a registered trade mark.
Does an EUIPO trade mark protect a brand in the UK?
No. Since 1 January 2021, EU trade marks have not covered the United Kingdom, so if you sell on Amazon.co.uk, you need a separate UK trade mark.
What should I do if, after filing, I receive an invoice for a trade mark register entry?
Check who sent the invoice before you pay anything. The EUIPO does not send invoices or payment requests for services, and it publishes examples of misleading letters from other companies on its website.
Summary
Registering a trade mark is a decision whose benefits you do not see straight away, but going without one comes back to bite you at the worst possible moment, namely when your brand starts selling well on Amazon and becomes worth copying. An EU trade mark protects your name throughout the EU, and on Amazon it opens the way to Brand Registry and its brand tools. If you are building your own brand and thinking about selling in several EU markets, file your trade mark before the product starts selling, not after the fact.
We would be happy to look together at where you stand now and how registering a trade mark with the EUIPO fits into your plan for launching on Amazon. Book a free consultation call or see how our Amazon consulting sessions work.
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