Industrial Property Law

Decisions concerning the grant, rejection or maintenance of intellectual property rights on a trademark fall within the competence of the director general of the INPI ( Article L. 712-14 IP Code), who carries out a formal and substantive examination of the filing.
The formal examination aims to establish the admissibility of the application. The INPI checks the compliance of the file and the effec …

Examination of the application

Decisions concerning the grant, rejection or maintenance of intellectual property rights on a trademark fall within the competence of the director general of the INPI ( Article L. 712-14 IP Code), who carries out a formal and substantive examination of the filing.

The formal examination aims to establish the admissibility of the application. The INPI checks the compliance of the file and the effective payment of the fees and ensures that the application for registration allows the applicant to be identified and contains the model of the mark and the indication of the goods and services to which it applies (Art. R. 712-7 IP Code).

In case of incomplete filing, the INPI must invite the applicant to add the missing information within a time-limit fixed by it. The rectification does not have retroactive effect: the filing date is the date on which all the missing elements were filed.

An application for registration that is deemed admissible is published in the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property. Any interested person may then submit written observations to the director general of the INPI within a time-limit of two months and the holders of prior rights may file an opposition ( Art. R. 712-8 IP Code).

If the application is accepted, the INPI carries out a substantive examination ( Art. R. 712-10 IP Code). It verifies that the application for registration corresponds to the legal and regulatory requirements, that the mark can constitute a trademark within the meaning of Article L. 711-1 of the Intellectual Property Code, that it is distinctive and that it is not unlawful within the meaning of Article L. 711-2 of the Intellectual Property Code. If an opposition is filed against the registration of the mark, the INPI may have to check the availability of the sign.

If an applicant has not complied with the time-limits set out in the registration procedure and can prove that he is prevented from doing so through no fault of his own or through negligence, he can benefit from a recovery procedure that allows him to be relieved of any forfeiture of rights that he may have incurred during the registration procedure (Art. L. 712-10 IP Code). Upon written request to the director general of the INPI, he can benefit from a relief of lapse applicable to most time-limits (art. R. 712-12 IP Code).

The judgment of the INPI's director general to enter the trademark in the National Register of Trademarks and to publish it in the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property constitutes the registration. Once the trademark is registered, the INPI issues a title of ownership to the applicant (art. R. 712-23 IP Code).

Industrial Property Law

73. Examination of the application

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Les notions juridiques connexes

73. Examination of the application

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise