The applicant can obtain trade mark protection through various coexisting trade mark systems.^[1]
The EU trade mark, which claims uniform protection^[2] for the entire territory of the EU,^[3] is now of the greatest practical importance, even for Germany.
In addition to this EU trade mark system, there is still the national trade mark system - and thus also the German trade mark, which is of particular interest to companies that operate exclusively in Germany and do not intend to expand their activities beyond national borders in the future. As a result of Brexit, EU trade marks have lost their protection in the UK; however, UK law protects the signs as national trade marks for a transitional period.^[4]
International trade mark protection can be achieved beyond the EU trade mark through individual national foreign trade marks. On the other hand, there is a system based on international treaties for the centralised international registration of trade marks - the Madrid system, named after the underlying international treaties.^[5] Here, trade mark protection can be obtained for a large number of countries in a simplified procedure with a single application for registration, provided that these countries have acceded to the international treaties. The prerequisite for this international registration is always that an EU trade mark or national trade mark (MMA) or, in any case, a corresponding application (PMMA) already exists. The international registration is then based on this basic trade mark (so-called basic registration or basic application). Similar, parallel systems of far less importance exist in Africa - namely the English-language African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO)^[6] and the French-language Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI).^[7]
In addition to this distinction according to filing system^[8] and territory, a distinction can also be made according to ownership^[9] between individual, collective and certification marks. Unlike the usual (individual) trade mark, which usually belongs to a specific company, the collective trade mark is not owned by a single company, but by an association to which various companies belong. These members of the association retain the right to use the collective trade mark under certain conditions that are regulated in detail with the trade mark. In contrast, the certification mark does not guarantee the origin of a product from a specific company, but rather - for example as a seal of quality - certain product characteristics. Like the collective mark, the certification mark can also be used regularly by several companies.