Filing a Trademark Application
The right in a trademark or geographical indication can be acquired and protected by their registration with OSIM under the conditions of Law no. 84/1998 on the registration of trademarks and geographical indications, asamended and completed by LAW no. 112/2020.
Any sign, such as words, including names or designs, letters, numbers, colors, figurative elements, the shape of the product or product packaging, or sounds, may constitute a trademark, provided that such signs are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises and being so represented in the Trademark Register as to enable the competent authorities and the public to determine the clear and precise subject matter of protection granted to their owner. The registration of a trademark may be applied for individually by any person, or jointly, directly or through a representative, under the conditions provided for by the Law, as well as by its Implementing Regulations.
Applicants not having either their domicile, or their place of business or any real and effective industrial or commercial establishment on the territory of the European Union or the European Economic Area shall be compelled to be represented by a representative, except for the procedure of filing the application for trademark registration.
Depending on its graphic representation, a mark may be:
• Word mark - a name, a slogan, written in standard characters;
• Figurative mark - consists of figurative elements or combinations of verbal and figurative elements;
• Three-dimensional mark - the mark consisting of the shape of the product or packaging or any other specific three-dimensional sign that allows the identification of a good or service.
There are other types of marks, as well: positioning marks, dynamic marks, color marks, sound marks, motion marks, multimedia marks, holograms.
Depending on the nature of the applicants, a trademark may be:
• Individual trademark - the trademark whose applicant may be one or more legal or natural persons;
• Collective mark - the mark thus designated at the date of filing the application and which is capable of distinguishing between the goods or services of the members of an association owning the trademark rights and the goods or services of other enterprises. The registration of the collective mark is conditioned by the existence and filing of regulations indicating the persons and the conditions under which they are entitled to use the mark;
• Certification mark - a mark indicating that the goods or services for which it is used are certified by the trademark owner as regards the material, the manner in which the goods are manufactured or the services are provided, the quality, accuracy or other characteristics distinguishing these goods or services from goods or services that do not receive such certification. The application for registration, the regulations for the use of the certification mark and the authorization or document proving the legal exercise of the certification activity are required for filing.
In order to register a name (or a slogan), accompanied or not by a figurative element (drawing), as a trademark, it is necessary to fill in a standard form - the application for registration of a trademark by national route and to pay the fees provided for by the G.O. No. 41/1998 concerning the fees in the industrial property protection field and the conditions for using the same, with the subsequent amendments and completions - Annex 4. The annex can be accessed at: https://www.osim.ro/images/Taxe/2024/Taxe-PI-01.01.2024-Anexa-4-Marci.pdf. The form can be found on our website www.osim.ro and must be filled in at the computer (not by hand). It can be filled in in two ways:
A) on-line, by accessing our website, the chapter “Trademarks”, at: https://www.osim.ro/depuneri-online-marci. You must pay the application filing and publication fees (both on a single payment order) before you can fill in the form, because, in order to close the application and receive a filing number (application number), it is necessary to specify the number of the payment order with which the above-mentioned fees were paid. Please scan it and add it to the file. Graphic representation of the trademark (if applicable) needs to be in gif or jpeg format.
B) accessing the form in pdf format, from the “Forms” section, or from the “Trademarks” section; if you select this option, the form must be filed with OSIM in two copies, directly or by mail with acknowledgment of receipt. The form can also be sent to the e-mail address
At the time of filing the application, you will have to pay the filing fee in the amount of 50 lei and the publication fee, which is 149 lei for the black-and-white trademarks and 497 lei for the coloured trademarks; if you file the application directly to the OSIM headquarters, the fees will be paid at the OSIM cashier, if you send it by mail, you will have to attach to it a copy of the payment order stating the payment of the above-mentioned fees.
ATTENTION! Failure to pay these fees upon filing the application will result in the non-according of the filing date!
After the filing date is accorded, the applications are published in electronic format, in maximum 7 days. The date of publication represents the date from which observations on absolute grounds for refusal can be submitted, for 2 months, in accordance with Art. 5 paragraph (1) of the Law.
Within a maximum of 30 days from the filing of the trademark registration application, the fee for substantive examination must be paid (in case of non-payment of the fees in time, the owner is deemed to have renounced the trademark registration and the application is rejected).
The amount of the examination fee is to be determined according to the appearance of the trademark and the number of classes for which registration is sought. The mentioned classes refer to the object of activity for which the trademark protection is requested and can be found in the International Classification of Goods and Services - Nice classification - 12th EDITION/2024. It is necessary to specify precisley the goods and/or services for which you are applying for trademark registration. In case you write only the title of the class, it will be interpreted as including all goods and services covered by the literal meaning of the indication or term. If you are not sure of the classification, you can write, in the corresponding section of the form, a description of your activity, and the classification will be made by the examiners from the Trademark Preliminary Examination Division, for a fee of 149 lei.
According to G.O. No. 41/1998 mentioned above, the examination fees for one class are the following:
- for individual marks:
- word mark: 547 lei;
- figurative / three-dimensional mark black and white: 696 lei;
- figurative / three-dimensional mark with claimed colors: 1094 lei.
- For each additional class, an amount of 249 lei will be paid.
– for collective or certification marks:
- word mark: 1940 lei;
- figurative / three-dimensional mark black and white: 2238 lei;
- figurative / three-dimensional mark with claimed colors: 2736 lei.
- For each additional class, an amount of 348 lei will be paid.
On our website, under the title "Trademarks and Geographical Indications" you will fiind a "Calculator for the payment of fees for trademarks and geographical indications".
O.S.I.M. account (lei): RO05 TREZ 7032 0F33 5000 XXXX, Trezoreria Sector 3, 6, Cireşului Street, sector 3, Bucharest; tax code: 4266081.
OSIM shall perform substantive examination of an application for trademark registration within 6 months of its publication, provided that the legal fees are paid, and shall decide to admit or reject the registration of the trademark.
Within two months from the date of publication of the admission of the trademark registration application in the Official Industrial Property Bulletin - Trademarks Section, any interested person may file an opposition to the trademark registration for the relative grounds for refusal provided by Art. 6 of the Law, with the payment of legal fees.
OSIM shall register in the Trademark Register the trademarks admitted for registration, for which the registration procedure has been completed. The trademark registration certificate shall be issued, subject to the payment of the legal fee of 249 lei, within 30 days from the date of notification of the owner regarding the conclusion of the trademark registration procedure. In case of non-payment of the legal fee in due time, the owner shall be deemed to have renounced the registration of the trademark.
OPTIONAL ! Along with the trademark application or prior to filing the application, you can request a documentary search to be conducted by trademark specialists. The purpose of the search is to find out if an identical or similar trademark is still registered, the owner of which may make comments / objections to the registration of your trademark within two months of the date of publication. You will find the standard form and the corresponding fees on our website under the title "Documentary Search" under the heading "Documentary Search upon Request". Tariffs are included in Order 4 / 14.01.2021.
This documentary search is only meant for information purposes and has nothing to do with the trademark application examination procedure. The answer to the documentary search consists of a list of trademarks.
IT IS NOT A DECISION! The decision will be made by you, or if you do not know what to do, you can use the services of an industrial property attorney, authorized by OSIM and member of CNCPIR.
We would also like to inform you that all the data bases in which OSIM performs documentary search are public and can be accessed free of charge on the Internet at the following addresses:
– registrul național de mărci: https://api.osim.ro:8443/tm-registry
– registrul WIPO: https://www.wipo.int/madrid/monitor/en/
– registrul EUIPO: https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/welcome#/tmview
Trademarks registered with OSIM are protected only in Romania.
Trademark rights may be transferred by assignment or license at any time during the trademark protection period.
A trademark is valid for 10 years from the date on which the application for registration was filed and it may be renewed for as many periods of 10 years.
OSIM address is 5, Ion Ghica Street, Sector 3, Bucharest, code 030044.
For any other information in the field of industrial property, you can come to the OSIM headquarters, to the Public Relations Office, ground floor - room 2, you can write to us by e-mail: