Steady on there!

While protection in the EU extends to 27 member states and a population of around 450 million, and it even covers outposts such as Réunion, an island in the southern Indian Ocean, and French Guiana at the top of South America, you’re not getting protection for the entire continent of Europe, or even Western Europe. It’s a European Union trade mark not a European one after all. The same applies in relation to registered designs.

Focusing on Western Europe

Western Europe is typically the area of most commercial interest to international businesses.

The elephant in the room is, of course, the United Kingdom. Since our country left the European Union, it needs covering separately in any trade mark or design filings.

Beyond this, we must mention the European Economic Area (EEA). Governed by European law, the area aims to enable the free movement of goods and services. Alongside the 27 EU countries, it also includes the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. 

There’s an additional EFTA member state not covered by EU trade marks or designs: Switzerland. While the Swiss did not join the EEA, it has agreements in place with the EU and being between the EU’s Big Three (France, Germany and Italy), it has close economic ties to the EU.

The good thing is that all of them, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom can be covered either through national or international Madrid (trade mark) or Hague (design) applications. The International filing systems work extremely well in these countries, although you would typically be better filing nationally if speed is of the essence, or you’re not doing all of them at the same time. We’re often filing nationally in the bigger three economies of Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and can do so in all three inexpensively.

The Micro-states

Western Europe also contains a number of microstates. These can be easily forgotten in trade mark filing programs and, to be frank, their markets are small and infringement is not rampant. Protection is, however, sometimes needed for these: Andorra, the Faroe Islands*, Guernsey*, Jersey, Monaco*, Northern Cyprus and San Marino*. Those asterisked can be covered by International filings, with Jersey expected to be available in Madrid applications later this year. Filing volumes are much lower here, understandably, and certain industries may file more than others, but should you need support and strategic advice then please reach out to us.