How to renew an EU trademark upon its 10-year expiration, the 2026 grace period rules and what to do about restoration of rights after a missed renewal, renew every 10 years and don't forget the timing.

An EU trademark (EUTM) is protected for 10 years from the filing date, and a renewal application may be submitted to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) as early as 6 months before expiry. If the expiry date is missed, there is still a 6-month grace period, but an additional 25% surcharge must be paid; if the grace period is also missed, the trademark lapses, and the only option is restoration of rights, which must be filed within 2 months of the removal of the obstacle and no later than 1 year after the expiry of the registration. Renewals come around every 10 years, so be sure to set reminders in advance.

The expiration date is not the registration date, but the filing date.

Many clients encountering EU trademark renewal for the first time instinctively assume that the protection period runs from the date the registration is published. That is incorrect. Under Article 53 of the EU Trade Mark Regulation (EUTMR, EU 2017/1001), an EUTM's protection period is 10 years from the filing date, renewable every 10 years. For example, if the filing date is March 15, 2016, the expiry date is March 15, 2026, regardless of when registration was granted in the interim, whether opposition proceedings occurred, or whether revocation for non-use was faced. In practice, we generally recommend that clients record the filing date directly in their trademark docket rather than the date the registration certificate was issued, to avoid timeline misalignment. In addition, if the filing date falls on the 29th, 30th, or 31st of a month, and the corresponding month has no such day, EUIPO treats the last day of that month as the relevant date — a point that is frequently overlooked in renewal calculations spanning leap years.

Normal renewal window: 6 months before expiration, lowest cost.

The normal renewal window for an EUIPO trademark is 6 months before the expiry of the protection period. Using the same example above, submissions can be made between September 15, 2025 and March 15, 2026, with official fees calculated at 850 euros for one class, 50 euros for the second class, and 150 euros for each class from the third onward (the current fee schedule remains in effect for 2026, as EUIPO has not made structural adjustments to renewal fees in recent years). Electronic filing is cheaper than paper filing, consistent with the application stage. There is a detail here: a renewal application can cover only part of the goods or services, which is the so-called partial renewal. If you no longer use certain classes, voluntarily giving them up is more cost-effective than keeping them and being subject to a revocation action by others on the grounds of five consecutive years of non-use. We usually help clients conduct a review of use evidence before renewal, cutting out the categories they no longer operate, which both saves official fees and reduces the surface area for attack.

How is the 6-month extension period and the 25% surcharge calculated?

Failing to renew on the expiry date itself does not mean the trademark dies immediately. Article 53 of the EUTMR provides a six-month grace period, counted from the day after the expiry of the protection period. If filed within the grace period, in addition to the normal renewal fee, a surcharge applies, set at 25% of the renewal fee. Taking the single-class fee of 850 euros as an example again, the grace-period fee would be 850 plus 212.5 euros, totaling 1,062.5 euros. This payment is not a fine; in nature it is closer to a late fee, and once paid, the trademark remains valid with continuity of rights and no gap. It should be noted that during the grace period the trademark remains protected, and if someone applies for a similar trademark during these six months, you can still oppose it based on prior rights, which differs from what many assume—that "once expired, no one cares." The real danger is the moment the grace period ends: the trademark becomes invalid as of the expiry date of the protection period, and EUIPO will publish the cancellation.

The grace period has also been missed; there are only two paths to restoring the right.

Once a renewal is missed, there are legally only two paths to salvage the registration. The first is restitution in integrum under Article 105 EUTMR, which requires you to prove that despite exercising all due care, you were prevented from meeting the deadline by force majeure or an unforeseen obstacle, such as a prolonged system outage, a sudden serious illness requiring hospitalization, or war or natural disaster in your country. The application for restitution must be filed within two months of the obstacle being removed, and in any event no later than one year after the expiry of the protection period. The second path is to refile, but this comes at a significant cost: the filing date becomes a new one, similar marks filed by others in the interim may in turn block your application, and the priority of a Madrid designation to the EU can no longer be carried over. In practice, we generally advise that unless the mark truly has no market value, priority should be given to pursuing restitution, because once an EUTM lapses and you refile, the examination period typically takes four to six months, during which the brand is effectively unprotected in the EU.

What fees must be paid for restoration of rights, how long does the review take, and can it be rejected?

Rights restoration is not simply a matter of filling out a form. It requires submitting a request for restoration, a declaration explaining the facts of the obstacle, and supporting evidence (hospital certificates, official outage notices, logistics or bank records, etc.), along with payment of all outstanding renewal fees, additional fees, and the restoration fee. The EUIPO's examination of a restoration request is a substantive examination, not a mere formality. Examiners focus on two key points: whether the obstacle genuinely existed, and whether the applicant acted promptly after the obstacle was removed. If either point fails, the request will be rejected. After rejection, an appeal can be filed with the EUIPO Board of Appeal (BoA), and if still dissatisfied, further proceedings can be brought before the General Court of the European Union. The entire process can take as little as three to four months, or more than a year. Many clients encountering this for the first time assume that "paying a fee will get it restored," but in reality, the burden of proof rests entirely on the applicant, and an incomplete chain of evidence is the most frequent reason for rejection.

Renew every 10 years, don't fixate on just one trademark.

Cross-border e-commerce sellers usually hold more than one EU trademark, and the years in which they were filed tend to cluster within a span of two or three years, which means the expiration dates will bunch together. We have seen clients with seven or eight trademarks from the same batch expiring in the same month, only to renew the one for their primary brand, while all the secondary brands fell into the grace period or even lapsed entirely. We recommend creating a renewal calendar based on filing dates, marking deadlines 12 months in advance, initiating internal approval 6 months ahead, and completing payment 3 months ahead. If a company is also positioned in markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, the renewal milestones differ: the US requires an additional declaration of use (Section 8) between the 5th and 6th years, and after Brexit, EUTMs no longer automatically extend to the UK—all of these must be scheduled separately. For those needing unified management across jurisdictions, one may refer to the annual maintenance approach for overseas intellectual property, treating EU trademark renewals as part of the overall overseas asset ledger rather than handling them in isolation.

Costs, Agents, and Several Common Pitfalls

Renewal itself is not complicated, but there are quite a few pitfalls. First, EUIPO will not proactively remind you of the expiration date; the office will only send a reminder letter about six months before expiration to the address on record, so if the address has not been updated, you will not receive it. Second, after a change of representative, the former representative may still be receiving official documents, which means you may have no idea that the reminder has already been sent. Third, after a partial renewal, the classes not renewed will fall into the public domain, and others may apply to use the same mark in those classes. Fourth, renewal does not involve a review of use, but the risk of revocation for five consecutive years of non-use always exists, and a successful renewal does not mean the trademark is secure. As for fees, the official fee for a normal single-class renewal is 850 euros, plus agency service fees, with market rates generally ranging from RMB 8,000 to 15,000, depending on the number of classes and whether partial surrender needs to be handled. We generally recommend that clients also archive evidence of EU use before renewal, to keep a record for possible future revocation defense. For other jurisdictions beyond the United States and the European Union, please refer to intellectual property legal services in other countries; if you need to handle EU renewal together with opposition, monitoring, and enforcement as a package, please seeUS and EU trademark and patent filing page., which contains the corresponding process instructions.

Three Things You Should Do Right Now

Whether your EU trademark expires in 2026 or 2030, there are three things you can do right now. First, pull together a table of all EUTMs under your name, listing the filing date, registration number, class, and representative information, sorted by expiry date. Second, verify that the contact address and representative authorization registered with EUIPO are up to date, ensuring official reminders can reach you. Third, set two reminders for each trademark: six months before expiry and three months before expiry. There is no such thing as "automatic renewal" for EU trademark renewals—it is once every 10 years, and getting the timing wrong means real financial loss. If you do miss a renewal, the window for restoring your rights is only 2 months, with a 1-year cap—miss it and it is gone for good.

The foreign-related intellectual property team at Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm has long been handling trademark, patent, and copyright applications and maintenance across the United States, the European Union, and major jurisdictions worldwide. We also handle EU trademark renewals, restoration of rights, and responses to oppositions. Consultation hotline: 4008-363-555.

Disclaimer: This article is based on EU trademark regulations and EUIPO practices publicly available as of February 2026, and is provided for general reference only. It does not constitute legal advice for any specific case. The deadlines and evidentiary requirements for EU trademark renewal and restoration of rights may vary materially depending on the facts of individual cases. Before taking any specific action, please consult a professional attorney in light of your own trademark status.