The new collective trademarks & certification trademarks

With the entry into force of D. Lgs. n. 5/2019 some changes have been made to the Intellectual Property Code regarding trademarks. In particular it has been enacted a new regulation on collective trademarks and it has been provided the new category of the certification trademarks.

It follows that a national collective trademark must be converted it into a certification trademark or a collective trademark according to the new legislation.

The deadline will be December 31, 2020.

If the application for conversion is not deposited within the deadline, the national collective trademark will be revoked.

The application for the conversion must indicate the goods and services to which the trademark refers to, whose list must correspond to the list presented at the time of deposit of the national collective trademark to be converted without the possibility of adding goods and services in addition to the ones originally indicated.

The application must also filed together with a regulation governing use of the sign, updated in accordance with the mentioned legislation and, in particular, with the amended art. 157 CPI “Application for registration of collective trademark or certification”.

For all further practical aspects of the conversion application, it is possible to consult Circular No. 607 “Transitional provisions on the conversion of the sign into a collective trademark or certification trademark”.