EU Trade Mark Renewal at the EUIPO: The Ten-Year Cycle Explained

Why renewal matters

An EU trade mark (EUTM) is a valuable but perishable asset. Registration gives you protection across all EU member states through a single EU trade mark right at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), but that protection is not permanent by default. It runs in fixed cycles, and it lapses if you do not renew it in time. For a brand owner, renewal is the routine housekeeping that keeps the right alive, so it is worth understanding the cycle well before the deadline arrives rather than discovering the timing under pressure.

Unlike a patent, a trade mark can in principle last indefinitely, provided you keep renewing it on time. There is no upper limit on the number of renewals. Renewal at the EUIPO is a separate matter from use: you are not asked to prove or declare use when you renew, so filing the renewal and paying the fee is enough to carry the right forward. Genuine use matters for a different reason. A mark that is not put to genuine use can, after a period of non-use, become vulnerable to revocation on the application of a third party. So the two disciplines run in parallel: renew on time to keep the registration alive, and use the mark to keep it from becoming exposed to cancellation.

The ten-year cycle

An EUTM is registered for a period of ten years from the filing date, and it can be renewed for further ten-year periods without limit. In practice this means the clock is anchored to your original filing date, not to the date the mark was actually registered, so the renewal date can feel earlier than you might expect if registration took some months to complete.

The EUIPO generally sends a reminder before the deadline, but you should never rely on that reminder as your only prompt. Reminders can go to an out-of-date address or to a former representative, and the legal responsibility to renew sits with the owner regardless of whether a notice arrives. Diarise the renewal date yourself, and ideally set an internal reminder well ahead of it so there is room to gather instructions and budget. The renewal request can be filed within a defined window in the run-up to the expiry date rather than only on the day itself, so confirm the current start of that window with the EUIPO and file with time to spare.

How renewal fees are structured

Renewal fees at the EUIPO are structured around how many classes of goods and services your registration covers. As a general shape, a mark registered in a single class attracts a lower renewal fee than one covering several classes, and each additional class adds to the total. The structure broadly mirrors the way filing fees are calculated, so the more broadly your mark is registered, the more renewal tends to cost.

This is a natural moment to review whether you still need every class. If part of the specification covers goods or services you no longer offer and have no plans to return to, you can choose to renew for only some of the classes and let the rest lapse, which can reduce the fee. Weigh that against the risk of narrowing your protection. Because fee amounts and the exact mechanism change from time to time, official fees apply and you should confirm the current amount with the EUIPO or local counsel before you budget.

The online process

Renewal is handled online through the EUIPO. If you have an EUIPO account you can renew directly through the office's electronic tools, identify the registration, confirm the classes you want to carry forward and pay the fee. Many owners renew through a professional representative who manages a portfolio of marks and handles the payment and record-keeping on their behalf, which is common where a business holds marks across several jurisdictions.

Keep proof of the renewal and of payment. Once processed, the renewal is recorded against the registration and the protection continues into the next ten-year period. If you are also managing international registrations that designate the EU through the Madrid Protocol, note that those follow a separate renewal route through WIPO rather than the EUIPO directly, so do not assume one renewal covers both.

The grace period

If the renewal deadline passes without action, the mark is not necessarily lost straight away. There is a grace period after expiry during which you can still renew, provided you also pay an additional surcharge on top of the normal fee. This is a genuine safety net, but it is not a soft extension to rely on as a matter of routine, and the surcharge means late renewal costs more than renewing on time.

Treat the grace period as an emergency backstop, not a plan. The length of the grace period and the size of the surcharge are set by the EU trade mark rules and administered by the EUIPO, and they can move only through amendment to those rules rather than at the office's own discretion. Even so, do not treat any figure or timeframe as fixed; confirm the current position with the EUIPO or a qualified representative if you find yourself close to or past the deadline. If the grace period itself expires without renewal, the mark can be removed from the register, and recovering protection after that point is far harder and sometimes impossible.

A practical closing note

IPEnvoy is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice; this is general information only. Renewal timing, fees and the grace period can change, so confirm the current position with the EUIPO and a qualified local IP professional before you act. If you would like help keeping an EU or multi-jurisdiction trade mark portfolio renewed and in good order, IPEnvoy can connect you with vetted IP specialists who handle renewals as part of routine portfolio management.