Planning to register a trademark and wondering how long the whole process will take? This is one of the first questions clients ask when they want to secure legal protection for their brand, logo, or company name. Some people search for how to “patent a trademark”, but trademarks are not patented in the legal sense. Below we explain that distinction and walk through how long trademark registration actually takes in Poland, the European Union, and abroad.
Search terms like “patent a trademark” or “trademark patent” are common, but understandable, simplifications. In legal terms, a trademark registration and a patent are two entirely different forms of intellectual property protection.
That is why the rest of this article uses the correct terminology: trademark registration or trademark protection, not “trademark patent”.
The choice of office depends on which territory you want to protect your brand in:
The filing route you choose has a real impact on how long trademark registration takes in practice, so it is worth deciding it together with a trademark attorney before submitting the application.
Once an application reaches UPRP, the office first checks for absolute grounds for refusal, meaning reasons for which it could refuse protection on its own initiative. If none are found, the application is published in the Patent Office Bulletin (BUP).
From the publication date, a three-month opposition period begins. During this time, any party who believes the new application infringes its earlier rights can file an opposition to the trademark application.
If the opposition period passes with no objections, UPRP issues a conditional decision to grant protection within the following 1 to 2 months. Once you receive it, you have 3 months to pay the fees indicated in the decision, covering publication and the first 10-year period of protection. After the decision becomes final and payment is recorded, the office assigns a registration number and issues a paper trademark certificate.
In short: when the procedure runs smoothly, about 6 months pass from the filing date to the conditional decision. The paper certificate arrives by post a few months later, once the decision fee has been paid.
Good to know: trademark protection runs retroactively from the filing date. You can only legally use the ® symbol once you have received and paid the conditional decision on time.
The EUIPO procedure runs similarly to the Polish one, with a few organisational differences. When the procedure runs smoothly, EUIPO also registers a trademark in about 6 months from the filing date.
The key difference concerns fees: the official fee covering filing, registration, and the first 10 years of protection is paid upfront, at the time of filing. This means that if the trademark is not registered for any reason, the fee paid is not refunded.
One advantage of the EU procedure is how quickly the registration document is issued. EUIPO sends the certificate in electronic form, usually within a few days of the registration decision.
If you want to protect your brand outside Poland and the European Union, using the international trademark registration under the Madrid System requires a basic application or registration with UPRP or EUIPO. The WIPO filing itself usually takes a few weeks at the formal examination stage, but the final protection timeline depends on how long each designated country needs to process the request.
Individual national offices typically have 12 or 18 months to raise an objection to extending protection to their territory. In practice, this means the full international procedure across all designated countries can take anywhere from a few months to as long as two years, depending on the number and specifics of the chosen jurisdictions.
The timelines above describe a smooth, uncontested procedure. In practice, the process can take longer when:
Most of these delays can be avoided when the application is prepared from the start by an experienced trademark attorney.
Although the law does not require a search before filing, in practice it is one of the most important steps in the entire process. A trademark search lets you check two key issues:
A professional check before filing helps avoid two serious problems: losing money on an application with a high risk of failure, and, often far more costly, unknowingly infringing someone else’s rights, which can end in a lawsuit from the owner of an earlier trademark.
Formally, a trademark application can be filed without a representative. In practice, given the many procedural pitfalls and the need to draft a precise list of goods and services, it is worth entrusting the process to a specialist.
Working with an experienced patent law firm will not shorten the statutory office deadlines, but it significantly reduces the risk of formal errors, oppositions, and refusal decisions, all of which genuinely extend the process.
Trademark registration requires knowledge of both the law and the decision-making practice of the relevant offices. If you want to make sure your application is prepared correctly and with the right scope of protection, write to us and ask for a quote, we would be happy to guide you through the whole process.
When the procedure runs smoothly, about 6 months pass from filing with UPRP to the conditional decision granting protection. The paper certificate arrives after the decision fee is paid, usually a few months later.
Not in the legal sense. A patent protects technical inventions, while trademarks undergo registration, not patenting. The correct term is trademark registration or trademark protection.
No, both procedures take a similar amount of time, about 6 months when there are no obstacles or oppositions, even though EUIPO protection covers all 27 member states at once.
The most common causes are oppositions from owners of earlier trademarks, formal deficiencies in the application, an unclear list of goods and services, and applications covering multiple jurisdictions at once.
Yes. A patent attorney knows the decision-making practice of the relevant offices, can draft a precise list of goods and services, and reduces the risk of a refusal or opposition, which in practice shortens the entire process.