File your EU trade mark application with a clear process

An EU trade mark application usually begins with confirming what sign you want to protect, which goods or services should be covered, and whether there are obvious filing risks. From there, the application is prepared and lodged with the relevant office. After filing, the application may be examined and then published, which can lead to questions from the office or objections from third parties. Our role is to help with the stated legal work in that filing process, including preparation and submission, while approval and third-party decisions remain outside our control.

It helps to have a clear version of the brand you want to register, such as the word mark or logo, plus details of the goods or services you want covered in Europe. We may also need information about who will own the application and how the brand is being used or is intended to be used commercially. Class selection and wording matter because they affect the reach of the application. If the descriptions are too broad, too narrow, or poorly matched to your business, that can create avoidable issues later.

Once the application is filed, timing is influenced by the examining office's workload, whether any questions are raised during examination, and whether another party decides to oppose the application after publication. Those steps are not controlled by Sprintlaw. A straightforward application may move ahead more smoothly, but delays can happen if the mark is considered descriptive, conflicts with earlier rights, or the goods and services need clarification. We can help you understand where the application sits and what the next filing-stage step is, but we You will get a clear view of the legal issues and the next steps that matter. or approval date.

Yes. A New Zealand business can apply for an EU trade mark to seek protection across EU member states through one filing route. This can be attractive if you are selling into Europe, launching there soon, or want broader brand coverage than a country-by-country strategy. That said, filing in the EU does not replace the need to think about your wider brand strategy in other markets. If you need broader international planning beyond the EU application itself, that would usually sit outside this fixed-fee service and may require separate advice.

Timing varies depending on whether the application proceeds cleanly or runs into examination issues or opposition. In practice, some applications move through in a matter of months, while others take longer because of office queries, publication periods, or third-party challenges.

The sequencing matters: filing is only one stage, and later steps can affect the overall timeframe. We can help you understand what stage your application has reached and what usually comes next, but the regulator's timing and any third-party response are external factors that can extend the process.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the EU Trade Mark Application service, pricing starts from $2,000.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.