How long do you have to oppose a German trademark?
Three months
from registration.
MarkenG §42(1) gives three months from publication of the registration. The window is not extendable, and it does not restart.
Statutory. Last read against the statute on .
01 / The date that matters
Registration is the start, not the end.
Germany is one of the minority of offices that registers a mark first and runs opposition afterwards. Seeing “registered” on the register does not mean you have missed it. For a recently registered mark it usually means the clock has just started.
- 01
Filed
The application is lodged and examined. Nothing is running yet.
- 02
Registered
The mark goes on the register, and only then is it published for opposition.
- 03
Published for opposition
The three months window opens here. This is the date that counts.
02 / The trap
Not every office works this way.
Germany runs opposition after registration. Most offices do the opposite: the EU, the UK, the US, Canada and others open the window at publication of the application. The other post-registration offices we cover are Switzerland, Japan, Sweden.
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.
03 / If the window has 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 Worth knowing early: a holder whose own book is largely lapsed or withdrawn is more vulnerable to a non-use challenge than the register first suggests.
04 / Every office we cover
The same question,
answered per register.
05 / The record
Read from the register,
with the provision beside it.
Intelligence, not legal advice. Your counsel confirms the date and acts on it. This window and its provision were last read against the statute on .