Surrendering your trademark

 Are you the holder of a trademark? You can surrender your rights to the trademark for all or part of the goods and/or services at any time, by handing the Office a notice of surrender.

 

Conditions

The notice of surrender must concern a trademark on the National Trademarks Register.

NOTE: For international trademarks designating Monaco, you should approach the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization, which is responsible for the International Register.

 

Who can surrender a trademark?

The holder of the trademark entered in the National Trademarks Register.

Any applicant may be represented by an agent, if they so wish. The agent may be an industrial property consultant or, more generally, any natural person or legal entity.

IMPORTANT: if the person surrendering the trademark is not the holder named in the National Trademarks Register, it is essential to register the change of ownership in the Register. You should therefore have yourself registered beforehand (or at the same time as the declaration of surrender) as the new holder in the Register. If the trademark was bought and sold several times before you acquired it, you must ensure that all of the previous holders were properly registered. If not, you will need to register the ownership transfer contracts (see the section entitled “Updating trademark information” under the heading “The life of your trademark”).

If the trademark has been licensed or pledged, the holder must obtain written permission from the licensees or pledgees (see the section entitled “Updating trademark information” under the heading “The life of your trademark”).

If the trademark is jointly owned, all of the joint owners must declare their intention to surrender it.

If part of the trademark has been sold (partial transfer), each of the joint owners must surrender their rights for the goods and/or services for which they own part of the mark.

 

How to surrender your trademark

You need to complete two copies of the “Update Application" form and sign both of them as originals.

The form must indicate the trademark’s registration number and also, in the case of partial surrender, the number or name of the classes being surrendered.

NOTE: to facilitate processing of your application, it is advisable to type up the information on the form.

 

Other documents to be supplied

  • If the trademark has been licensed, written permission from the licensee.
  • If the trademark has been pledged, written permission from the pledgee.
  • Remember to provide a power of attorney if someone else is representing you (see Step 3 of the trademark filing process in the section “The Registration process” under the heading “Registering a trademark”).

 

How much does it cost to surrender a trademark?

30 euros per trademark and per update.

 

How to pay

You can choose to pay:

  • By cheque made out to “Trésorerie Générale des Finances” or “T.G.F. “
  • In cash, but only at the Office in person
  • By bank transfer (Bank details) .

 

Where to submit your notice of surrender

Once you have all of the documents needed, you can:

  • hand them directly to the Office
  • Post them to:

Direction de l’Expansion Economique

Division de la propriété intellectuelle

9, rue du GABIAN

98000 MONACO

IMPORTANT: documents cannot be sent by email or fax.

 

After submitting your notice of surrender

The surrender of your trademark will be entered in the Trademarks Register, based on the information on the form. Meanwhile, the Office will send you a receipt for your payment, indicating the number of the trademark concerned by the notice of surrender.

The notice will be published in the Annex to the Official Journal of Monaco.

IMPORTANT: In the general interest, it is advisable to read the information published carefully and inform the Office of any errors as quickly as possible (see section entitled “Reporting an error”).

Reporting an error