A mark registration at the BOIP or the EUIPO is valid for ten years from the date of application. If you do not renew on time, the protection lapses automatically — there is no letter withdrawing the mark on your behalf, it simply ceases to exist in the register. From that moment on, someone else can register the same name or logo, and you will have no recourse against it.
Most registers allow an additional period after the expiry date during which you can still renew, at a surcharge on top of the standard fee. However, this period is short and ends definitively; anyone who lets it pass loses the mark and must — if still possible — start completely afresh with a new application, including a new conflict search against everything that has been added in the meantime.
Why this date is so often missed
The point where things go wrong in practice is rarely due to unwillingness. It is the nature of a ten-year deadline: no one has an approaching renewal on their radar amid the daily running of a business. The contact details provided with the application are often outdated after ten years — an old email address, an employee no longer in service, a representative no longer following the file. An official reminder, if sent at all, then reaches no one who knows what to do with it.
Added to this is the fact that a mark rarely stays on the radar of the person responsible for it ten years later. The person who filed the mark originally may no longer be the owner, may no longer work for the company, or may simply have forgotten that the registration was ever made. The company has been using the name daily in the meantime — precisely because of this, the protection seems self-evident, while the formal registration behind it can quietly lapse.
What it concretely means if the mark lapses
Once the deadline passes without renewal, you lose the exclusive right to the name or logo in the classes in which it was registered. You can then no longer take action against a competitor using the same or a very similar name, and you can no longer file an opposition against a new application that resembles your mark — because there is nothing to base it on. Moreover: that new application can simply be approved, even if the name is identical to what you have used for years.
This is not only an issue with malicious competitors. A company that chooses a name in complete good faith can also have it registered once your protection has lapsed. From that moment on, the order is reversed: not you, but the new mark holder has the right, and can in turn demand that you cease using a name that you may have been using longer than they have.
Can you recover a lapsed mark
If the additional period after the expiry date has also passed, the mark is gone for good. There is then no appeal or restoration procedure that restores the original registration date. The only option is a completely new application, with a new conflict search — because in the meantime someone else may have already registered the same name, which could block a new application. The same steps apply to the class selection and preparation of that new application as with a first registration; via the full explanation per situation you can see what is involved.
How to prevent the date from catching you out
Because the expiry date itself does not change, the only thing that works is a system that reminds you well in advance — not just in the final month, but with enough lead time to arrange the renewal comfortably. That is precisely why an active registration should be accompanied by a renewal reminder alongside substantive monitoring of your mark: the same discipline needed to not miss an opposition deadline is needed to not miss the ten-year expiry date.
Whether your situation is actually in that final phase, and which steps are then practical, depends on the date of your own registration and the register in which it is held. A first assessment of where you stand with a name or logo — expired, still protected, or not yet registered — you can request free of charge and without an account via the mark check with a direct indication. How monitoring and renewal then work in practice, and what that costs, you can read on the overview of service fee and subscription and in the answers to the questions we receive most frequently.
Do you have half an hour and want to know if this applies to your mark? Start with the free quick scan or browse through the other topics in the knowledge base — both are accessible without an account and provide a direct concrete answer.