How to Register a Trademark in Spain: OEPM vs EU Trademark, Steps and Timeline

To register a trademark in Spain, you file one application either with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM), which protects the mark in Spain only, or with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which protects it in all 27 EU countries at once. At the OEPM, the application is published, third parties get 2 months to oppose it, and an application without problems is usually decided within 6 to 12 months. The registration lasts 10 years from the filing date and can be renewed indefinitely. Applicants with no address or business in the European Economic Area must file through a representative, which is how we register trademarks in Spain for clients abroad.

Verified in October 2026 against the OEPM applicant manual (January 2024 edition), the OEPM registration procedure page, Spanish Trademark Law 17/2001 and the EUIPO help centre. Procedures change; each step below names its source.

Spanish trademark or EU trademark: which one you need

Spain gives you two routes to the same protection on Spanish territory. A Spanish national trademark is filed with the OEPM and covers Spain. A European Union trademark (EUTM) is filed with the EUIPO and covers Spain plus the other 26 member states with one registration. Both last 10 years and both are renewable. The differences are in scope, risk and timing:

Point	Spanish trademark (OEPM)	EU trademark (EUIPO)
Territory	Spain	All 27 EU member states, Spain included
Opposition period after publication	2 months	3 months
Does the office refuse your mark on its own because of an earlier mark?	No. Only if the earlier owner opposes	No. Only if the earlier owner opposes
Earlier rights that can block you	Spanish marks, EU marks and international registrations covering Spain	Earlier rights in any of the 27 member states
If a problem exists in one country only	Not applicable	The whole EU application is refused (all-or-nothing)
Applicant outside the European Economic Area	Must act through a Spanish industrial property agent	Must appoint an EEA representative
Typical time to registration with no opposition	6 to 12 months (OEPM); about 8 months in our experience	About 10 months in our experience
Duration	10 years from filing, renewable	10 years, renewable
Our page	Register a trademark in Spain	Register an EU trademark

A Spanish trademark makes sense when Spain is your only market in the EU, or when a search shows a conflicting mark in another member state that would sink an EU application. The EUIPO applies an all-or-nothing rule: an earlier right raised in an opposition blocks the EU trademark even if that right exists in only one member state, and so does a word that is descriptive in just one official EU language.

An EU trademark makes sense when you sell, or plan to sell, in several EU countries. If it is refused, it is not necessarily lost: the EUIPO allows a refused EU application to be converted into national applications in the member states where the ground for refusal does not apply, and those national applications keep the original EU filing date. The broader trade-off between national and regional filings is covered in our guide to national vs. international trademark registration.

Who can file in Spain, and when you need a representative

Any natural or legal person can own a Spanish trademark, including public bodies (Law 17/2001, art. 3). Nationality is not a requirement. Where you are based does matter:

• Domiciled or established in the European Economic Area: you can file directly with the OEPM or through an industrial property agent or authorised representative.
• No domicile and no real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in the EEA: you must be represented by a Spanish industrial property agent (Agente de la Propiedad Industrial), under article 175.2 of Patent Law 24/2015, as the OEPM applicant manual states.
• Acting yourself without an address in Spain: you must give a postal address in Spain or the EEA for notifications, or ask the OEPM to notify you by another technical means it supports.

For clients abroad, our filing runs through licensed local attorneys. We need a simple power of attorney: a signed copy, with no notarization or legalization. We can file first and you can send the power of attorney later, which matters when you are racing a priority deadline.

Before you file: the OEPM will not check earlier marks for you

This is the most misunderstood part of the Spanish system. After publication, the OEPM examines your application only for absolute grounds, such as lack of distinctiveness, descriptive terms or signs contrary to public order, and for the name or image of another person (Law 17/2001, arts. 5.1 and 9.1.b). It does not refuse an application on its own because a similar mark is already registered. An earlier mark stops you only if its owner files an opposition. The OEPM manual says it plainly: if the earlier owner does not oppose, the OEPM cannot refuse the new application on the basis of that earlier right.

Two consequences follow:

1. The clearance search is your job. A registration obtained without opposition can still be challenged later by the owner of an earlier mark. The OEPM's free online locator does not search by phonetic similarity, and its paid search report covers only marks and trade names registered at the OEPM. Spanish trademarks also face EU trademarks, so a search limited to the Spanish register is incomplete. Start with a trademark search in Spain.
2. If you already own a mark, watching is also your job. The OEPM sends earlier owners an informational notice about 7 days before it publishes a later application that may conflict, but the manual stresses that this courtesy does not replace your own monitoring, and you still have only 2 months from publication to oppose.

What the application needs

The OEPM gives an application a filing date (day, hour and minute) once it contains four minimum elements:

• a statement that you are applying for a trademark;
• the identity and signature of the applicant;
• a representation of the mark;
• the goods or services it will cover.

Goods and services are listed under the Nice Classification, and the official fee is paid per class. Once the mark is granted, no further fee is due until renewal. Filing through the OEPM electronic office reduces the application fee by 15%. The OEPM publishes its fee schedule each year (OEPM trademark fees). We do not repeat the amounts here because they change.

Spain accepts word marks, figurative marks, three-dimensional, position, pattern, colour, sound, motion, multimedia and hologram marks. Images go in standard formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF and others); sound marks go as MP3; motion, hologram and multimedia marks go as MP4.

If you filed the same mark abroad in the last 6 months, you can claim that earlier filing date as priority in Spain.

The OEPM procedure, step by step

1. Filing. Electronic filing at the OEPM e-office, or on paper. Applicants not domiciled in Spain file with the OEPM itself, not with a regional office.
2. Formal examination. The OEPM checks the minimum data, the forms and whether the applicant can own a Spanish trademark. Defects must be fixed within 1 month (2 months for applicants domiciled abroad when the defect concerns the minimum filing data); otherwise the application is treated as withdrawn.
3. Legality check. The OEPM checks the sign against public order and morality. You get 1 month to respond to an objection.
4. Publication. The application is published in the Official Industrial Property Bulletin (BOPI), which is published daily.
5. Opposition period. For 2 months from publication, anyone who considers themselves harmed can oppose.
6. Substantive examination. After the opposition period, the OEPM checks absolute grounds. If there is an opposition or an objection, it suspends the application and gives you 1 month to respond.
7. Grant or refusal. The decision is published in the BOPI. The decision can be challenged with an administrative appeal (recurso de alzada) within 1 month of publication; this appeal is mandatory before going to court.
8. Registration certificate. If granted, the decision includes a link to download the registration certificate 24 hours after notification.

Spanish trademark deadlines at a glance

Stage	Deadline	Counted from	Source
Claim priority from a foreign filing	6 months	Your first filing abroad	Paris Convention; our Spain page
Fix formal defects	1 month (2 months for foreign applicants, minimum-data defects)	Notification of the defect	OEPM manual, 8.B
Respond to a legality objection	1 month	Notification	OEPM manual, 8.D
Third-party opposition	2 months	Publication of the application in the BOPI	OEPM manual, 8.E; OEPM procedure page
Respond to a suspension (opposition or objection)	1 month	Publication of the suspension in the BOPI	OEPM manual, 8.F
Administrative appeal against the decision	1 month	Publication of the decision in the BOPI	OEPM manual, 8.G
Legal maximum for the OEPM to decide	12 months (no suspension or opposition); 20 months (with them)	Receipt of the application by the OEPM	Law 17/2001, 5th additional provision, per the OEPM manual
Protection	10 years, renewable for 10-year periods	Filing date	Law 17/2001, art. 31
Renewal without surcharge	Last 6 months before expiry	Expiry date	Law 17/2001, art. 32
Late renewal with surcharge	6 months (25% surcharge in months 1-3, 50% in months 4-6)	Expiry date	Law 17/2001, art. 32; OEPM manual
Genuine use	5 years	Registration date	Law 17/2001, art. 39

In practice, the OEPM says applications take between 6 and 12 months from receipt, depending on whether they are suspended or opposed. If the OEPM misses the legal maximum, the application is deemed refused by administrative silence, which is another reason to keep track of your file.

If someone opposes your application

An opposition suspends your application. The OEPM notifies you of the opposition and of any objections it raised itself, and you have 1 month from the publication of the suspension to respond. You can:

• argue that there is no likelihood of confusion;
• limit your list of goods and services to step away from the conflict;
• remove the element that caused the objection, as long as the change does not substantially alter the mark;
• in some cases, ask the opponent to prove that it has actually used the earlier mark (Law 17/2001, art. 21.3).

The OEPM then grants or refuses the mark in full or in part, whether or not you replied. Responding to oppositions and office actions is not part of a standard filing fee anywhere, including ours: it needs a legal analysis of the conflict, and we quote it separately before doing anything.

After registration: renewal and use

A Spanish trademark is protected for 10 years counted from the filing date, not the grant date (Law 17/2001, art. 31). Renewal is filed in the 6 months before expiry. If you miss it, you can still renew validly in the 6 months after expiry, with a surcharge of 25% in the first 3 months and 50% in the following 3 (art. 32 and the OEPM manual). We handle trademark renewal in Spain, including late renewals within the grace period, and we can take over a mark that another firm registered.

Registration also comes with a duty to use the mark. If it is not genuinely used in Spain within 5 years of registration, it can be revoked (art. 39). Since 14 January 2023, revocation and invalidity actions can be filed directly with the OEPM as an administrative procedure, not only in court. That administrative route is open against unused marks, so the 5-year rule has real consequences.

What Protect.TM handles for a Spanish trademark

Service	Spain (OEPM)	EU trademark (EUIPO)
Comprehensive trademark study (risk rating, attorney-reviewed, 1 business day)	Yes	Yes
Application filing by licensed local attorneys	Yes	Yes
Priority claim from a filing in the last 6 months	Yes	Yes
Registration certificate	Yes	Yes
Renewal, including late renewal within the grace period	Yes	Yes
Opposition defense and office action responses	Quoted separately	Quoted separately

Once your application is filed, you receive a filing report with the application number, the filing date and a scanned copy of the application, and you can track its status online.

Frequently asked questions

Can a foreigner register a trademark in Spain?

Yes. Any natural or legal person can own a Spanish trademark, whatever their nationality. If you have no domicile or real business establishment in the European Economic Area, you must file through a Spanish industrial property agent.

How long does trademark registration take in Spain?

The OEPM reports 6 to 12 months from receipt, depending on whether the application is suspended or opposed. The legal maximum is 12 months without incidents and 20 months with them. Without opposition or objections, our filings in Spain typically take about 8 months.

Does an EU trademark protect my brand in Spain?

Yes. An EU trademark registered with the EUIPO is valid in all 27 member states, including Spain, and it counts as an earlier right against later Spanish applications. You do not need both unless you want a fallback that does not depend on the other 26 countries.

Do I have to oppose conflicting applications myself?

Yes. Neither the OEPM nor the EUIPO refuses a new application on its own because it resembles your mark. You must file an opposition within the deadline: 2 months from publication in Spain, 3 months for an EU application.

How long is a Spanish trademark valid?

Ten years from the filing date, renewable indefinitely for further 10-year periods. Renewal is filed in the last 6 months, with a 6-month grace period after expiry that carries a surcharge.

Ready to protect your brand? Start with a trademark search in Spain, then register your trademark in Spain, or cover all 27 EU countries at once with an EU trademark.