Trademark life has changed considerably in Denmark during the last five years.
First of all, the European Community trademark system has come into force and now constitutes a vital element in European trademark strategy.
At the same time, Denmark acceded the Madrid Protocol and has thereby gained the advantages obtainable through the international trademark system.
Furthermore, the Danish Patent Office has changed its examination practice to one similar to the procedure followed by the Harmonization Office in Alicante.
Finally, compulsory use has been introduced in Denmark.
All these changes have been welcomed by trademark practitioners, as they will all in each their way be of positive influence for the individual trademark owners.
As will be known to most people within our world, the European trademark system has become a veritable success and has received a total of 57.324 new applications in 2000.
This of course has had an influence on the number of national Danish trademarks which has been reduced to about half the number filed before the introduction of the international systems, namely to 5.377 in 2000.
To these figures should be added that in a total of 6.496 international applications Denmark has been designated.
The number of registered trademarks with validity for Denmark has thus increased remarkably. The consequence of this is that the risk of collision between trademarks will increase in future. It had been expected that the number of oppositions against Danish trademarks would increase proportionally hereto. However, even after the introduction of the new examination practice in Denmark, we have not seen any dramatic increase of the number of oppositions raised.
It is our impression that the question of a possible conflict is often only taken up for consideration in case the collision of two marks has an impact on the market situation.
Compulsory Use
It should be mentioned, however, that after the introduction of the compulsory use rules in our country, a total of about 200 cancellation cases has been filed per year. In this way the system has proved to be a useful weapon in trademark strategies.
The Importance Of Watching Trademarks
Finally, it should be underlined that after the introduction of the new practice in Denmark, the importance of watching trademarks has increased considerably. It is now up to the owner of an existing trademark right (whether a national Danish trademark, a Community trademark or an international trademark comprising Denmark) to decide whether an opposition should be lodged against a new trademark identical to or similar to the existing right. Otherwise, a new mark may be registered irrespective of the older right. Great effort has been made in Denmark to draw the trademark owners’ attention to the new practice and the necessity of watching their rights.
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