德国商标的申请人资格和申请流程

       1、申请人资格： 法律规定，仟何希望在商业活动中使其商品或服务区别于他人的商品或服务的人均可以向专利局提出申请注册商标。联邦法律还规定，在没有营业所的申请人只有在其设有营业所的国家接受德国的商标或服务商标并且予以和其本国的商标相同的待遇时才依法在德国申请商标保护。

2、申请流程：

(1)形式审查： 申请递交后 对提交的申请文件、商标图样、委托书等文件进行的合法性审查;符合规定的，将授予申请日和申请号。

( 2)实质审查： 根据法律审查商标是否具有可注册性、 是否与在先注册的商标相同或近似、是否违背商标法的禁用条款。 对于不通过实质审查的商标，审查官将书面通知申请人，并告知驳回理由。申请人在接到该驳回通知之日起限期内可提交复审，否则，该申请将被视为放弃，申请日和申请号均不予保留。

( 3)商标公告： 经审查，审查官认为商标申请可以被接受后，便会在德国官方商标公告上刊登公告。自公告日 3 个月为异议期。

( 4)注册核准： 经异议被裁定可以注册的商标，或经公告没有异议的商标将获准注册并下发注册证。整个顺利的申请过程(如果没有驳回、异议等情况出现)大概需要 6-8个月。3、德国商标有效期： 从申请日起算 10 年 ，注册有效期满需继续使用的，应在注册有效期满前 6个月申请续展注册，每次续展注册有效期为10年。

1. Applicant qualification : German law provides that everyone who wants to make their goods or services different from others in commercial activities can apply for registered trademarks to the German Patent Office. Federal law also stipulates that applicants who have no place of business in Germany apply for trademark protection in Germany only when they accept the German trademark or service trademark in the country where they have a place of business and give the same treatment as their own trademark.

2. Application process :

( 1 ) Form review : the legality review of the application documents, trademark drawings, commissions and other documents submitted after the application is submitted ; if the requirements are met, the application date and application number will be granted.

( 2 ) Substantive examination : examination under the law of whether a trade mark is registrable, whether it is the same or similar as a previously registered trade mark and whether it is contrary to the terms of prohibition of the trademark law. For the trademark that does not pass the substantive examination, the examiner will notify the applicant in writing and inform the reason for the rejection. The applicant can submit a review within the time limit from the date of receiving the notice of rejection. Otherwise, the application will be considered to be abandoned, and neither the application date nor the application number will be retained.

( 3 ) Trademark announcement : After examination, the examiner thinks that the trademark application can be accepted, it will be published in the German official trademark announcement. Three months from the announcement date is the objection period.

( 4 ) Registration and approval : the trademark which is ruled to be registered by objection, or the trademark which is not objection by announcement will be approved to be registered and issued a registration certificate. The whole application process ( if there is no rejection, objection, etc. ) will take about 6-8 months. 3. Validity period of German trademark : from the date of application for10years, registration validity period expires need to continue to use, should be in the registration validity period of6months before the application for renewal registration, each renewal registration validity period is10years.