Trademarks, Designs and Brand Protection in Germany

Trademarks and designs in Germany at a glance

Trademarks and designs are the legal backbone of a brand. In Germany, brand owners can rely on national rights registered at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), on EU trade marks and registered EU designs administered by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), and on international registrations extended to Germany or the EU. German law also protects unregistered marks that have acquired recognition in the market, company names and work titles as business designations, and certain unregistered designs. The result is a layered system: strong when the layers are coordinated, but vulnerable where clearance, use or ownership has been neglected.

This page explains how trademarks and designs are obtained, cleared, defended and enforced in Germany, including oppositions and cancellation, customs seizures, anti-counterfeiting, domain names, geographical indications and the EU design law reform. For patents and technical inventions, see our pages on patent litigation and the IP and patents overview.

For companies entering Germany, the most common mistakes with trademarks and designs are launching without clearance, filing in the name of the wrong group company and relying on a design that was disclosed too long before filing. Each is avoidable with a short legal review at the planning stage, ideally before packaging, domains and marketing materials are commissioned.

Types of protection for brands and product design

Under the Trade Mark Act (Markengesetz, MarkenG), trade mark protection arises through registration in the DPMA register, through use in the course of trade where the sign has acquired recognition among the relevant public, or through notoriety in the sense of the Paris Convention (§ 4 MarkenG). Company names and the titles of works are protected as business designations (§ 5 MarkenG) as soon as they are used, without registration. A registered mark gives its owner an exclusive right (§ 14 MarkenG) and lasts ten years from filing, renewable indefinitely for further ten-year periods (§ 47 MarkenG).

Designs protect the appearance of a product or part of a product. A German registered design under the Design Act (Designgesetz, DesignG) arises with registration and lasts up to 25 years from the filing date (§ 27 DesignG). At EU level, registered EU designs and unregistered EU designs are governed by the EU design regulation as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/2822. Unregistered EU designs give short-term protection against copying from the date of first disclosure in the EU, which is valuable for fashion and other short-lived products.

Clearance, filing strategy and oppositions

A new brand should be cleared before launch. Clearance searches cover identical and similar registered trade marks in Germany and the EU, international registrations designating either, company names in the commercial register, domain names and protected geographical indications. Because German law protects business designations from first use, a register search alone is never enough. A focused search and a written risk assessment cost far less than a rebrand after a warning letter.

The filing strategy depends on the markets served. An EU trade mark covers all Member States in a single registration, but a conflicting earlier right in any one Member State can block it. A German trade mark provides a stable national basis, and where an EU application fails it can in some cases be converted into national applications. Many German companies hold both, with the German registration as a fallback for their home market. Specifications should cover the goods and services actually offered and planned, worded precisely enough to survive later non-use challenges.

International registrations

Companies based outside the EU often extend a home registration to Germany or the EU through the Madrid system administered by WIPO. An international registration designating Germany or the EU is examined by the DPMA or EUIPO in the same way as a direct filing and can be opposed by owners of earlier rights.

For a few years after registration, the international registration depends on the basic home mark, so a successful attack on the home mark can also affect protection in Germany. Foreign owners should also consider whether the German or EU mark will be used in a form that matches the registration, because use requirements are applied to the mark as registered.

Oppositions

Owners of earlier marks and business designations can oppose a German trade mark within three months of publication of its registration (§ 42(1) MarkenG). Owners of protected designations of origin and geographical indications may also oppose within that period. EU trade mark applications can be opposed within three months of publication of the application (Article 46(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001). Opposition proceedings are relatively inexpensive and are the first line of defence for an established brand. Our insight on trademark clearance and opposition explains the procedure, the non-use defence and coexistence agreements.

Use, cancellation and portfolio maintenance

A registered mark must be put to genuine use in Germany for the registered goods and services (§ 26 MarkenG). If it has not been used for an uninterrupted period of five years after the end of the opposition period, the registration can be revoked on application (§ 49(1) MarkenG). Use with the owner's consent, for example by a licensee or group company, counts as use by the owner. Owners asserting older marks in opposition or infringement proceedings must be ready to prove use, so they should keep dated evidence of sales, advertising and packaging for each core product.

Third parties can challenge a German registration through revocation or invalidity proceedings before the DPMA or before the civil courts. Grounds include non-use, absolute grounds such as lack of distinctiveness or descriptiveness, bad-faith filing and conflicts with earlier rights. A well-maintained portfolio of trademarks and designs is also easier to value and transfer in a transaction. Portfolio maintenance involves periodic audits of what is used and where, renewals, recording assignments and licences, and pruning registrations that no longer serve a purpose.

Enforcing trademarks and designs in Germany

Enforcement of trademarks and designs in Germany usually begins with a warning letter (Abmahnung), which asks the infringer to sign a cease-and-desist declaration backed by a contractual penalty. If the infringer refuses, the owner can apply for a preliminary injunction, which German courts grant quickly, sometimes within days, where the owner has acted with sufficient urgency. The regional courts have exclusive jurisdiction for trade mark disputes regardless of the value in dispute, and the federal states concentrate them at specialised courts (§ 140 MarkenG).

Main proceedings lead to injunctions, damages, information about suppliers and customers, recall and destruction of infringing goods. Damages can be calculated on the basis of lost profit, the infringer's profit or a reasonable licence fee. Defendants typically counter with a non-use defence, a cancellation request or the argument that the signs are not confusingly similar. Limitation of claims follows the general rules of the Civil Code, with a residual enrichment claim (§ 20 MarkenG).

Unfair competition law supplements trademark and design rights. The Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) protects against misleading advertising and, in certain circumstances, against the imitation of products with competitive individuality. Claims under the UWG are often combined with trade mark and design claims, especially for product imitations where design protection has lapsed or was never registered. See our unfair competition basics.

Licensing and coexistence

Trade marks can be licensed for all or part of the registered goods and services and for all or part of Germany, on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis (§ 30(1) MarkenG). The owner can assert its trade mark rights against a licensee who breaches licence terms on duration, form of use, scope of goods, territory or quality (§ 30(2) MarkenG). Well-drafted licences also allocate enforcement rights, require the licensee to provide evidence of use and deal with the consequences of termination. Coexistence agreements resolve conflicts between similar marks in different sectors or territories, but they must respect competition law limits, especially where they amount to market partitioning.

Criminal enforcement

Intentional trade mark infringement in the course of trade is a criminal offence under § 143 MarkenG, and corresponding provisions apply to designs. Criminal complaints can support civil enforcement against organised counterfeiters, because public prosecutors can search premises and seize goods and assets. In practice, rightholders use criminal proceedings selectively, mainly for commercial-scale counterfeiting.

Illustration: a hypothetical sportswear brand finds imitations of its shoe design on a marketplace, shipped from outside the EU. It holds an EU trade mark for its logo but never registered the shoe's shape. It files a customs application covering the logo, notifies the marketplace under its notice-and-action procedure, and considers claims based on an unregistered EU design, if the shape was first disclosed in the EU recently, and on unfair competition law for the imitation. For future collections, it decides to register key designs before launch.

Customs, anti-counterfeiting and online enforcement

Counterfeits are best stopped before they reach the market. Under Regulation (EU) No 608/2013, rightholders can file an application for customs action, free of charge, which allows customs authorities to detain suspected infringing goods at the EU's external border. Once goods are detained, the rightholder must act within short deadlines, typically ten working days, to confirm infringement and agree to destruction or start proceedings. A simplified procedure allows small consignments to be destroyed without the rightholder's explicit agreement in each case. For intra-EU trade and other cases outside the regulation, national seizure on import or export is available where the infringement is obvious (§ 146 MarkenG).

Online, the Digital Services Act gives rightholders notice-and-action tools against illegal listings on platforms and marketplaces, and requires marketplaces to trace traders. Combined with test purchases, platform reporting programmes and targeted civil actions against repeat sellers, these tools form the core of a modern anti-counterfeiting programme. Our insight on anti-counterfeiting and border measures explains the procedure in detail.

Domain names

There is no administrative dispute procedure like the UDRP for .de domains. Claims are brought before the civil courts on the basis of trade mark law, business designations or the right to a name (§ 12 of the Civil Code). The registry DENIC offers a dispute entry, which prevents transfer of the domain while the dispute is pending and gives the claimant priority if the domain is released. For generic top-level domains, the UDRP remains a fast and cost-effective route. See our insight on domain name disputes.

EU design reform and geographical indications

The EU design law reform changed the landscape for designs. Regulation (EU) 2024/2822 renamed the Community design the EU design and has applied since 1 May 2025, with certain provisions applying from 1 July 2026.

The reform expressly addresses 3D printing, so that creating, downloading or sharing files that record a protected design for the purpose of making a product can infringe, and it strengthens the position of owners against goods in transit through the EU. The recast Design Directive (EU) 2024/2823 must be transposed by 9 December 2027; it harmonises a repair clause that removes protection for visible spare parts used to restore the original appearance of a complex product. Germany already has a national repair clause in § 40a DesignG. See our insight on the EU design reform.

Geographical indications are a further layer. Regulation (EU) 2023/2411 has protected craft and industrial products with a regional reputation since 1 December 2025, adding to the long-standing protection for agricultural products, wines and spirits. Protected indications can block trade marks that evoke them, so brand owners using regional names should check whether an indication has been or is about to be registered. See our insight on geographical indications.

How TRW & Co helps

We advise brand owners on trademarks and designs in Germany and the EU, from clearance and filing strategy to oppositions, cancellation actions and litigation. We send and respond to warning letters, apply for and defend against preliminary injunctions, and conduct infringement actions combining trademark, design and unfair competition claims. We build anti-counterfeiting programmes with customs applications and online enforcement, handle domain disputes, and review portfolios in transactions and group restructurings. We also draft licence, coexistence and settlement agreements. To discuss your brand portfolio, please contact us. This page is general information and not legal advice.