
When
opening a company in Ireland it is also very important to
choose a trademark which will represent the products or the services provided on the local market. Although businessmen are not obliged to perform this action, it is highly recommended to
register the trademark, as it will guarantee the
exclusive right of usage.
Trademarks in Ireland are registered at the
Irish Patents Office, which will verify if the sign respects all the legal requirements. However, it is important to know that it is necessary to
create a distinctive trademark, which presents various
signs and symbols that have not already been used and registered.
Our team of Irish company formation representatives can provide an in-depth presentation on the main characteristics of a
distinctive trademark in Ireland.
Legislation referring to the protection of Irish trademarks
Trademarks in Ireland are protected by the
Trademarks Act 1996, which integrated the legislation applicable in the European Union (EU) under the Directive No. 89/104/EEC. In order to
register a trademark, the businessman will have to respect several criteria which will attest the fact that the sign presents distinguishable representations. It is important to know that the
Irish Patents Office can refuse the
registration of a symbol if it does not provide the minimum requirements referring to its
distinctive characters;
our team of Irish company formation specialists can offer more details in this sense.
Irish distinctive trademark
In order to create a distinctive trademark in Ireland, those who are interested in this issue should take into consideration the following characteristics:
• fanciful marks – they consist of very distinctive signs, as they are represented by various combinations of letters that do not have a certain meaning; such signs are usually invented words;
• arbitrary marks – they refer to words or combinations of words which do exist in the local language, but their particular interpretation have nothing in common with actual meaning of the words;
• suggestive marks – they suggest the meaning of a word, which is correlated with the real meaning the word has in the common language;
• descriptive marks – they refer to an attribute of the product or service that is being sold on the Irish market.