What is a trademark?

Any sign that serves to distinguish the products or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises and can be represented graphically may constitute a product trademark or service trademark.

What can be registered?

Trademarks can consist of words, including personal names, letters, acronyms and numerals; of figurative signs such as designs, logos, seals, the shape or packaging of the product; of colour combinations or shades; or any combination of the above-mentioned signs.

What cannot be registered?

A sign cannot constitute a trademark if it has no distinctive character, notably if it consists exclusively of information that may serve, in trade, to designate a characteristic of the product or service, especially the kind, quality, quantity, purpose, value or geographical source of the product or provision of service or the time of production;

A sign's distinctive character is assessed in relation to the products and services it is intended to distinguish. Its distinctive character can be acquired through use.

• if it consists exclusively of terms that have become customary in everyday language or form part of the constant, established practices of trade in the Principality of Andorra;
• if it consists exclusively of the form dictated by the actual nature of the product or service or by the shape of the product that is necessary for a technical result to be achieved;
• if it is contrary to public order or morality;
• if it is liable to mislead the public, in relation to the nature, quality or geographical source of the product or service;
• if, without authorisation from the competent authority, it reproduces or imitates, wholly or partially, enough to create a risk of confusion or association in the mind of the public:
• the name (or the abbreviated name), coats of arms, flag or other emblems of the Principality of Andorra, its parishes, its "quarts", or its other administrative areas or the official signs and hallmarks of the Principality of Andorra indicating control and warranty;
• the name of a state (or abbreviated form of this name), coats of arms, flags and other emblems of a state or the official signs and hallmarks adopted by a state to indicate control and warranty;
• the name, acronyms, coat of arms, flag or other emblems of an intergovernmental organization.

What advantages does registering a trademark offer?

Registering a trademark is not obligatory but it is advisable when considering the advantages it provides.

• The owner of a registration acquires a property right in the trademark registered for the products and/or services that he has designated.
• He acquires an exclusive right that prohibits third parties from the reproduction, imitation or any use of the trademark, without his authorisation, for goods and services that are identical or similar to those designated in the registration.