If you don't notify the BOIP or EUIPO of an address change for your trademark, the register will continue to use your old address for all official correspondence. This means notifications about an opposition, a refusal, or an upcoming renewal will go to an address where you no longer are — and you won't see them in time.
The deadlines attached to those notifications continue to run, even if the mail doesn't reach you. A missed opposition period or a forgotten renewal can, in the worst case, cause your trademark to lose its protection without you being aware of it at the time.
Why the register needs your address
The BOIP and EUIPO communicate in writing, and correspondence goes to the address registered in your file. This is not automatically your current business address or the address on your website; it is the address provided at the time of application and not updated since then. If you have moved, merged, or your business has been taken over, nothing changes in the file until you have it amended yourself.
This is not only an issue when your business moves. A change in legal form, a change in the business name, or a transfer of the trademark to another entity also affects the data the register uses to reach you. If you don't report that, you are effectively opening a mailbox that no one is checking anymore.
What goes wrong when mail doesn't reach you
Most correspondence from a trademark register is time-sensitive. A third party filing an opposition against your application, an official refusal on formal grounds, or a reminder that your trademark must be renewed after ten years — these are all messages with a clear deadline. If that message doesn't arrive because it goes to an old address, the deadline passes without you being able to respond.
The register does not actively check whether an address is still correct. A letter that cannot be delivered does not automatically extend the deadline. The responsibility to keep your data current rests with the trademark holder, and this applies to each national and European register in the same way.
Opposition, renewal, and refusal: the same vulnerability
In an opposition, the period in which you can respond runs from the date of notification, not from the date you actually read the message. The same applies to a provisional refusal: the response period runs regardless of whether the letter reaches you. And for an upcoming renewal, the register does send a reminder, but that reminder is a service, not a guarantee — the responsibility for timely renewal remains with you.
This is precisely why an incorrect address is not merely an administrative inconvenience, but a risk to the trademark right itself. A missed response to an opposition can result in the loss of the application; a missed renewal can result in the loss of an existing trademark that has been in use for years.
When this happens more often than you think
An address change is easily forgotten at the moment it matters, because it rarely coincides with the time of the trademark application itself. A business moves, a sole proprietorship becomes a limited company, a trademark is transferred to a new owner in a business takeover — in none of these cases does anyone routinely think to update the trademark file with the register. Precisely because a trademark registration is valid for ten years and renewable indefinitely, a lot can change in the business during that period while the file at the register remains unchanged.
What you can do
The key is simple: periodically check whether the data registered with the BOIP or the EUIPO still match your company's current situation, and file an amendment as soon as anything changes. This is not a substantive review and requires no legal knowledge, but it does require attention at a time when there is little reason to think about your trade mark file.
If you prefer not to keep track of this yourself, you can arrange for ongoing monitoring that also watches the administrative side of a trade mark, not just similar new applications from third parties. how an application and the subsequent monitoring work together provides an overview of this, and answers to practical questions about active trade mark files addresses specific situations such as relocation and transfer.
Would you like to know how your trade mark currently stands before you make any changes? get an indication of your situation in a few questions costs no account and no money. And if you wonder what happens to your data once you leave it with us, you can read about it on how we handle your data.
An incorrect address in the register is usually only noticed when it is already too late. So it is better to take a few minutes now to check that your file is still correct, rather than discover later that an important message never reached you.