How to register a trademark in Romania (OSIM) and the EU: steps, costs, timing and the mistakes that lead to refusal

Company register, OSIM, EUIPO: three different things

• The trade register (ONRC in Romania) registers the company's legal name. It only stops another company from having exactly the same corporate name; it does not protect you if someone else uses the name as a brand.
• OSIM (the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks) registers the trademark: the name, the logo or the slogan, as a distinctive sign for your goods and services, in Romania. Ten years, renewable.
• EUIPO registers the European Union trade mark, valid in every member state, in one procedure. It costs more and is refused if there is a conflict in any one state.

What you can register

• A word mark: the name, as text, regardless of typeface. The strongest protection for a name; with it, any logo carrying that name is covered.
• A figurative mark: the logo, with or without text, exactly as drawn. It protects the drawing; if you change the logo, the mark does not move with it.
• A combined mark: name plus symbol, together. Common, but it protects the combination, more weakly than each on its own.
• The slogan, if it is distinctive (it does not merely describe the product).

The usual recommendation for a small business: the word mark first; the figurative one when the logo has settled and the budget allows.

Step 1: the prior search

Before filing, search the OSIM database (and TMview, which covers OSIM, EUIPO and the rest of Europe) for identical or similar marks in your classes. “Similar” includes close pronunciation (Meridian and Meridiam), translation and look-alike figurative signs. An earlier similar mark for similar goods is grounds for opposition and refusal. The search is free online; an attorney does it better, for a fee.

Step 2: the Nice classes

Goods and services are divided into 45 classes (the Nice Classification): 1–34 goods, 35–45 services. A mark is registered per class, and the fee rises with each class. Choose the classes you actually operate in or will within three years: a cafe is in class 43 (food services) and, if it sells packaged coffee, in 30 (coffee); a design agency in 42 (design) and 35 (advertising). Do not pay for classes “just in case”; a mark can be cancelled in the classes where it has not been used for five years.

Step 3: filing

1. 01The application is filed online, on the OSIM portal, with the representation of the mark (the text, or the logo image at good quality), the list of classes and goods/services, and the applicant's details.
2. 02The filing and examination fee is paid. Indicatively, in 2026, a mark in one class costs around €200–300 in total, with a discount for online filing and an extra fee for each additional class; consult the fee schedule on osim.ro for the exact amounts.
3. 03OSIM examines the application formally (within a few weeks) and publishes it in the Official Bulletin.
4. 04A two-month opposition period follows, in which holders of earlier marks can contest.
5. 05Substantive examination: OSIM checks the absolute grounds for refusal (descriptiveness, lack of distinctiveness, prohibited signs).
6. 06If all is in order, a decision to register is issued and, after payment of the issue fee, the registration certificate. Protection runs from the filing date.

How long it takes and what it costs, indicatively

The common grounds for refusal

• The mark is descriptive: “Good Coffee”, “Fast Plumbing”. It describes the product, it does not distinguish it.
• Lack of distinctiveness: a banal shape, a single colour, a generic term.
• Conflict with an earlier similar mark, in similar classes. The number one reason, and avoidable with a search.
• Prohibited signs: coats of arms, flags, official names, signs that mislead (indicating a false origin).
• A logo from a template library used by thousands of companies: the figurative element is not distinctive.

What to do after registration

• Use the mark as registered; five years of non-use allows cancellation.
• You may use the ® symbol only after registration; before it, ™ is permitted but has no legal effect in Romania.
• Renew in the last year of validity; OSIM does not send a mandatory reminder.
• When you expand into the EU, file at EUIPO claiming the priority of the Romanian mark, within six months of the OSIM filing.

How to choose a name that stands a chance of registration, with the availability tests, is in how to name a brand. A generated or drawn logo does not come with a guarantee of registration; the search above remains the mandatory step for any mark, whoever made it.