Yes, you can handle trademark registration renewal yourself. Both the BOIP and the EUIPO send the trademark holder a reminder before the ten-year period expires, and renewal itself amounts to paying a fee through your own account at the register. You do not need a lawyer or representative to make that payment.
Where it becomes more difficult is not the action itself but everything around it: are you certain the address where the reminder arrives is still correct, do you check whether the classes still match what your business now sells, and do you have a fixed place where that expiry date is noted so it does not get lost among other post. In practice, the last point is the most common reason a trademark expires: not because the owner did not want to renew it, but because no one saw it in time.
What renewal involves
Renewal of a Benelux or European Union trademark is essentially a payment. You log in to the register where the trademark is registered, confirm that you wish to continue, and pay the fee within the set period. In a standard renewal, the trademark is not reassessed for distinctiveness; the earlier registration remains the basis. For exact deadlines and any additional options after the expiry date passes, we refer you to the official information from the BOIP or EUIPO itself, as those conditions may differ between registers.
If you are doing this for the first time, you can follow the steps in the knowledge base; that also shows what you need to prepare the renewal through answers to practical questions about registers and registrations.
Where things go wrong without guidance
The risk rarely lies in the payment itself, but in three things that sit close to it. First, timing: a trademark registered in the name of a founder no longer involved with the business, or an email address that is no longer monitored, means the register's reminder reaches no one. Second, classes: a business that has grown or changed direction sometimes renews the same classes as ten years earlier, while its current activities no longer fall entirely within them. Renewal protects what was registered, not what the business now does. Third, alignment with other ongoing matters: if there is meanwhile an opposition in progress or a third party has applied for a similar trademark, renewal is the moment to keep an eye on that, not something separate from it.
None of these three points calls for legal advice. They call for a system that links the expiry date, the classes and the monitoring together, so that a renewal is not an isolated form but a control point.
When outsourcing makes sense
The boundary is not at "can I do this myself" but at "do I want to keep track of this myself". For a sole trader with one trademark in one class, keeping track yourself is manageable, provided there is a fixed calendar reminder. For a business with multiple trademarks, multiple classes, or a trademark registered by someone who has since left, the overview becomes unclear more quickly. Then an external renewal alert that stands apart from individual mailboxes and that immediately flags whether the classes still match what the business now does is helpful.
That is exactly what marcai.eu's monitoring service is built on: we keep track of the renewal deadline and class structure and alert you in time, but you submit the renewal yourself via your own account at the BOIP or the EUIPO. We are not a trade mark representative and do not act on your behalf; we make sure you do not forget what you need to do yourself. Anyone who wants to see how that monitoring is structured can read about it via an overview of where the information comes from.
What marcai.eu does and does not do
For those unsure whether the current mark still aligns with business activities, a short check is often helpful before the renewal is confirmed. You can do that via a free check on the current status of your mark, without needing an account for it. What the renewal itself costs in service fees and subscription is clearly set out on the overview of fees and what is included, separate from the official fee that goes directly to the register.
Whether it makes sense for your situation to outsource the monitoring depends on how many marks and classes you have running and how confident you are that the right person will actually read the reminder. If you are unsure, first do the free quick-scan or browse through the other topics in the knowledge base; there you will find exactly where the line lies between what you handle yourself and where guidance saves you effort.