Glossary
French: dépôt de marque
The dépôt de marque is the legal act by which the applicant — the future owner — requests a monopoly over a sign or a sound for specified goods and services. The fundamental difference from US practice: France and the EU are first-to-file systems. No use in commerce, no intent-to-use declaration, no specimens — rights flow from registration, and the filing date is everything.
If the mark is filed in the name of a legal entity, the filing must be made by a person with authority to represent it. The simplest route is to instruct a trademark attorney, who needs no power of attorney to represent one or more applicants.
See trademark fees and costs for full cost breakdowns.
Once the mark registers, the ten-year term of protection runs from the filing date — renewal falls due ten years after filing, not registration (see trademark renewal). The filing date is also the date used for priority purposes when the filing is a first filing, opening the six-month Paris Convention window for foreign extensions.
Before filing, availability should be checked through a clearance search.
See also: French trademark registration, EU trademark registration, applicant.