How long do you have to oppose an EU trademark?

What is the cooling-off period in an EU trademark opposition?

Once an opposition is filed at the EUIPO, a two-month cooling-off period runs before the adversarial stage begins, and the parties can jointly extend it to 24 months in total. It exists to let the parties settle: an agreement reached in cooling-off ends the case without a decision, and most EU oppositions end exactly there. The cooling-off period is separate from the three-month window to file the opposition itself — it only starts after you have filed.

Publication. Not filing, and not registration.

The application is examined first, then published. The clock starts at publication. Counting from the filing date makes you early, which is harmless. Counting from registration makes you late, which is not.

Not every office works this way.

The EU opens the window at publication of the application, as most offices do. But Switzerland, Germany, Japan and Sweden register the mark first and run opposition from publication of the registration.

Applying one office’s rule to another does not shift a deadline by a few days. It invents one that never existed, and the real one may already have closed.

It is not over, but the route changed.

Once opposition lapses you are into cancellation or invalidity: a different action, different evidence, more cost, lower odds. Worth knowing early: a holder whose own book is largely lapsed or withdrawn is more vulnerable to a non-use challenge than the register first suggests.