Back to Length of the trademark registration process

What is the timeline for trademarking?

Senior Trademark Attorney

A trademark application goes through three main stages, each with its own timeframe.

Examination: the IP office reviews the application for formal compliance and registrability. This takes 1 to 10 months, depending on the jurisdiction, and longer in some countries.

Opposition period: after passing the examination, each application is published for opposition. This period is where third parties have a set window (typically 2 to 3 months) to file an opposition. If no opposition is raised, the mark proceeds to registration.

Registration: if the application clears both stages, the trademark is registered, and a certificate is issued. The time from filing to certificate issuance typically ranges from 3 months to 2 years, with significant variation across jurisdictions.

Related questions

Healthy competition or monopoly over Oats? The case of Oatly AB vs Glebe Farm Foods

Cases of multinational companies putting claims against much smaller businesses are far from uncommon, but their result is almost always the same - an absolute PR nightmare for the corporate giants. Oatly AB, a leading plant-based dairy alternatives producer, is amongst the companies that have fallen under public scrutiny after their overly aggressive trademark enforcement actions.

Louis Vuitton vs Louis Vuiton Dak: Never-ending battle of Louis Vuitton against counterfeit market

Another day another case of a trademark dispute between a fashion giant and a small food business. A South Korean fried chicken restaurant recently lost a trademark battle against designer Louis Vuitton. The court ruled in the designer's favor after determining that the restaurant's name Louis Vuitton Dak was too similar to Louis Vuitton.

Generic trademarks: the case of Booking.com

By definition, a trademark needs to display sufficient distinctiveness to identify the origin and ownership of the products and services. That means generic and descriptive words should be avoided at all costs. The landmark case in United States PTO v. Booking.com B.V, however, proves that a generic term combined with “.com” or another top-level domain can be registered as a trademark if there is sufficient evidence of consumer recognition.