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Tips for your trademark application

Check mark in front of many question marks

Are you planning to apply for a trade mark at our office? To find out which documents you need and how to file your application, choose Application from the drop-down menu under Trade Marks on the menu bar. Here we have compiled some practical tips for you.

What you have to submit with your application

In your trade mark application you have to

  • indicate the trade mark applicant(s)
  • indicate the desired trade mark
  • submit a list of goods and services

More information is available in our leaflet pdf-Datei Information for Trade Mark Applicants.
You can either apply for your trade mark online using DPMAdirektWeb (without signature) or DPMAdirektPro (with signature) or fill in the application form and send it in by post.

What you need to know about the applicant and the representative

Your contact details

Please let us know your e-mail address or telephone number – particularly if you file applications via the DPMAdirektWeb service – so that we can reach you quick-ly should any further questions arise.

Please always provide full details of the applicant on the application form.

  • If you file an application as a legal entity, please enter the company name and address of the company as registered in the commercial register.
  • If the applicant is a partnership under the Civil Code (nicht eingetragene Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts), please indicate the partner(s) entitled to act as representative.
  • If you have registered a trade, please indicate yourself as natural person.

Please note: Managing directors, graphic design and advertising agencies do not constitute representatives; as a rule, only lawyers and patent attorneys can act as representatives.

For applications from abroad: If you – even as a German citizen – do not have a domicile, principal place of business or establishment in Germany, you are a foreign applicant and, as such, please always indicate a domestic representative.

What else is important

  • Please use a separate application form for each application.
  • Submit only one trade mark representation for each application.
  • If you are submitting a figurative mark or word/figurative mark in colour, please indicate the colours on the application form, namely “red”, “green”, “blue” and so on. These indications must, of course, correspond to the trade mark representation submitted. Please do not indicate RAL or HKS colour codes here.
  • Please also make sure that it is possible to clearly identify all colours or elements in applications for a word/figurative mark filed by fax.

How to prepare the lists of goods and services

Please always submit a list of goods and services grouped by class and arranged in ascending numerical order, i.e. list the goods and services by class, for example:

Class 3: Cosmetics; cosmetic preparations for baths;
Class 5: Pharmaceuticals; medicines for dental purposes;
Class 44: Health and beauty care for human beings or animals.

Please use the terms of the externer Link harmonised classification database or the terms of the current Nice Classification.

Picture: iStock.com/Altayb

Last updated: 20 December 2023