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GENERAL INFORMATION
Portugal is a member of the Paris Convention (Stockolm Act), of the Madrid Agreement and of the Protocol to the Madrid Agreement, TRIPS and Nice Agreement.
Portugal is a member state of the European Union. Therefore the CTM and Designs Regulations are in force in Portugal, as well as the corresponding complementary Regulations.
Exclusive rights can only be obtained from registration. Only in exceptional cases prior use can be relevant, but even so subject to the registration of the mark a posteriori.
TRADE MARK USE
Trade mark use is mandatory. Revocation can be declared if the Trade Mark has not been put in genuine use for the past five years, unless there are proper reasons for non-use.
Revocation can only be declared after proper proceedings initiated by the interested party before the Patent and Trade Mark Office.
DURATION OF A TRADE MARK REGISTRATION
After registration the trade mark is valid for a period of ten years and may then be renewed for subsequent periods of ten years.
The trade mark owner may grant licences to third parties. It is also advisable to have those license agreements duly recorded before the Patent and Trade Mark Office.
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News
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Decree Order No. 479/2010 of 12 July 2010 |
Decree Order No. 479/2010, adopting the second amendment to the Decree Order No. 1098/2008 of 30 September and implementing a revision to the fees list of the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property (hereinafter referred to as “PTO”) was enacted on the past 13 July 2010.
The referred Decree Order proceeded to a generalized increase on the value of the official fees, in particular for the most important acts, such as the fees for registration applications of trademarks, logotypes, rewards, designations of origin and national geographical indications, patent applications fees and fees for registration of designs or models. These increases correspond to 10% of the value, independently of performing the acts on-line or in paper.
The most significant increases, however, were introduced regarding particular categories of acts. For example, fees for renewals of trademark’s registrations (in a single class) and logotypes increased 122%.
Furthermore, and regarding the fees for requesting a modification of the PTO decision, the increase reaches 200%.
Notwithstanding, Furtado, S.A. will only reflect the official fees increase in the prices charged in relation to renewals of registrations and requests regarding the modification of the PTO decision, without any change in our costs. |
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Industrial Property Code amendments |
Last October 1st 2008 new amendments to the Industrial Property Code came into force by the Decree-Law n.º 143/2008 published on 25th of July 2008. These amendments intend to reflect simplification and access measures to industrial property in result of the SIMPLEX Program for the area of the Ministry of Justice. |
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London Agreement on article 65th of the European Patent Conv |
On May the 1st 2008 the London Agreement came into force in what concerns article 65th of the European Patent Convention, having as an objective the reduction of the translation costs in the procedures of validation of European patents in the countries designated in the context of a European patent application.
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