Glossary
French: priorité
Priority is the rule allowing an applicant who makes a first trademark filing to file another mark — same sign, same goods and services, same owner — in another country within six months, with the legal effect of the second filing backdated to the first filing date. US practitioners know it as Paris Convention priority, the same mechanism as Section 44(d) claims before the USPTO.
Priority must be claimed at the time of filing. Proof of the first filing date is required: a scanned copy of the official certified copy issued by the office of first filing.
At the INPI, the priority document must be translated into French and filed within three months of the French filing date. If the document and its translation are not provided within that window, priority is refused and deemed never claimed — and the INPI sends no reminder of the three-month deadline. For a US applicant extending a US-priority mark to France, this is the trap to calendar.
When claiming the priority of a French mark in an EU filing, no translation is needed — French is an official EU language. And where the supporting document is missing, the EUIPO’s practice is to verify the first filing itself rather than issue a deficiency notice. EUIPO practice is thus more forgiving than the INPI’s.
See also: trademark filing, French trademark registration, EU trademark registration, international trademark.