Your EU Trademark Stops at the Atlantic: U.S. Protection for European Brands

A European Union trademark is one of the most powerful brand rights in the world: one filing, 27 countries, about 450 million consumers. However, it gives no rights at all in the United States. Trademark law is territorial, and the U.S. system differs from the EU’s at almost every step that matters: who owns a mark, what the office examines, what proof is required, and what keeps a registration alive.

European companies know this and file heavily in the U.S.—the U.S. is a top three foreign destination for applicants from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Yet many still arrive assuming their EU portfolio translates directly, and discover too late that a U.S. company has been using a similar name in Florida for years, or that their U.S. registration has been cancelled for non-use. This article explains the gaps and closes with ten recommendations.

By the Numbers: European Brands in the U.S.

European companies are among the largest foreign users of the U.S. trademark system. Applicants from just five EU countries filed an estimated 30,760 trademark classes in the U.S. in 2024, led by Germany at about 12,000. Applicants from the United Kingdom, now outside the EU, filed another 19,759—the second-largest foreign source after China.

Three patterns stand out:

• The U.S. is a top three foreign market for every major EU origin. For Spanish applicants it is the first destination; for Italian and Dutch applicants, the second; for German applicants, the third behind Switzerland and the UK; and for French applicants, the third behind the UK and China.
• Europeans rely heavily on Madrid. Between 53% and 79% of these countries’ filings abroad go through the Madrid System. German applicants filed 6,106 international applications in 2025, France 4,026, and Italy 2,610, while the EUIPO itself forwarded 10,274.
• The competition is crowded. The USPTO received 301,922 classes from foreign applicants in 2024, more than half of them from China, so European owners face a dense register and a higher chance of conflicts.

EU vs. U.S.: The Differences That Trip Up European Owners

The EU rewards whoever files first while the U.S. rewards whoever uses first. Most of the other differences follow from that.

Issue	European Union (EUIPO)	United States (USPTO)
Basis of rights	Registration; first to file generally wins	Use in commerce; an earlier U.S. user can hold common-law rights that defeat a later registrant in its trading area
Use before registration	Not required	Required for use-based filings; not required for intent to use, Section 44(e), and Madrid filings
Conflicts with earlier marks	Not examined by the office; left to oppositions by owners	Examined by the USPTO on its own initiative, a leading cause of refusals
Goods and services	Broad terms common	Narrow, commercially specific wording required; cannot be broadened later
Language	Mark must be distinctive across all EU languages	Foreign words are translated into English under the doctrine of foreign equivalents
Government fee	€850 first class, €50 second, €150 each additional	US$350 per class, plus surcharges for incomplete or free-form descriptions
Opposition period	3 months from publication	30 days, extendable up to 180 days
Proof of use while registered	None until challenged; vulnerable after 5 years of non-use	Declaration of use with specimens between years 5 and 6, and at every 10-year renewal
Non-use	Revocation after 5 consecutive years	Presumed abandoned after 3 consecutive years; expungement or reexamination for goods never used
Representation	EU and EEA owners may file directly	All foreign-domiciled owners, including EU companies, must use a U.S.-licensed attorney
Unregistered rights	Limited, and vary by member state	Strong common-law and Lanham Act § 43(a) protection in areas of actual use

Two rows deserve emphasis. Because the USPTO examines conflicts itself, a mark that sailed through the EUIPO without objection can be refused in Washington over a registration the European owner never knew existed. And because the U.S. presumes abandonment after three years of non-use—two years sooner than the EU’s five-year grace period—a dormant U.S. registration is more exposed than its EU counterpart.

Latency: How Long Registration Takes in the EU, UK and U.S., 2021–2026

The single biggest practical surprise for European owners is time. A clean EU trademark application registers in about four months, and a clean UK application in about three to four. The average U.S. application has taken between 10 and nearly 15 months every year since 2021.

The three offices measure latency differently, which is worth knowing before comparing them:

	European Union (EUIPO)	United Kingdom (UKIPO)	United States (USPTO)
What the figure measures	Filing to registration, standard-track applications with no deficiencies or oppositions	Typical filing-to-registration time for an unopposed application, as stated by the office	Average filing to registration, notice of allowance or abandonment, all applications except suspended or contested ones
Floor set by law	3-month opposition period	2-month opposition period, extendable to 3	30-day opposition period
Fastest option	Fast Track with pre-approved terms: about 3.5 months	Examination report within about 10 working days	None generally available to private applicants
Madrid designations	About 4.7 months for clean designations of the EU	Not separately reported	Same examination as direct filings
What drives the time	Mostly the fixed opposition window	Mostly the fixed opposition window	The examination queue, plus office actions on conflicts and wording

Because the EU and UK figures cover clean applications while the U.S. figure averages across all applications, the true gap for a typical file is somewhat smaller than the chart suggests. It is still wide. The EUIPO’s time to registration barely moved between 2021 and 2024, varying only between 4.0 and 4.4 months by quarter. The USPTO’s, by contrast, swung by more than three months as a filing surge built a backlog that peaked in fiscal 2023 at 14.6 months and has since fallen to 10.0 months in the first half of fiscal 2026.

The UK has kept its timelines steady despite record demand: it received 212,547 trade mark applications in 2025/26, up 19.6% on the prior year, while largely meeting its service standards. The pressure there falls on oppositions instead — about 4% of applications are opposed, and live trade mark tribunal cases rose to 8,369.

What this means in practice. A European brand that files in the EU, the UK and the U.S. on the same day should expect its EU and UK registrations in hand roughly six to ten months before its U.S. registration, and longer if the USPTO raises a conflict or wording objection. Plan U.S. launches, distributor agreements and enforcement around that gap. A Section 44(d) priority claim does not speed up the USPTO, but it does lock in the earlier EU filing date, so an intervening U.S. applicant cannot jump ahead during the wait.

Cost: Filing Fees, Maintenance and the 20-Year Total

Fee comparisons between these offices are easy to get wrong, because each prices classes differently and each collects maintenance fees on a different clock. All figures below are government fees only, converted at the European Central Bank’s October 19, 2026 reference rates (€1 = US$1.1225; £1 = about US$1.333).

Filing fees per class

The EU front-loads its price: €850 buys the first class, but the second costs only €50 and each further class €150. The UK is the cheapest office at every class count. The U.S. charges a flat US$350 for every class, so its cost climbs fastest as classes are added—and an applicant who writes its own goods and services descriptions instead of choosing pre-approved terms pays another US$200 per class. At filing, the U.S. stays cheaper than the EU up to three classes; from the fourth class on, the U.S. costs more. The real gap opens later, at maintenance.

Maintenance: what falls due, and when

	European Union (EUIPO)	United Kingdom (UKIPO)	United States (USPTO)
Before registration	Nothing further	Nothing further	US$150 per class statement of use for intent-to-use filings; US$125 per class for each 6-month extension
Years 5–6	Nothing	Nothing	Section 8 declaration of use with specimens, US$325 per class (between years 5 and 6 after registration)
Optional	—	—	Section 15 incontestability declaration, US$250 per class
Renewal	Every 10 years from filing: €850 first class, €50 second, €150 each further	Every 10 years from filing: £245 first class, £60 each further	Every 10 years from registration: combined Section 8 declaration and Section 9 renewal, US$650 per class
Proof of use at renewal	Not required	Not required	Required for every class renewed
Late payment	6-month grace period, 25% surcharge	6-month grace period, £60 late fee	6-month grace period, US$100 per class surcharge for each filing

Two differences matter most. The U.S. is the only one of the three that charges a maintenance fee between renewals, and the only one that requires fresh proof of use each time. Its renewal clock also starts at registration rather than filing, so with a 10- to 15-month U.S. registration time the U.S. renewals fall roughly a year later than the EU and UK ones — European owners should never assume the three dockets line up.

Overall cost comparison

Government fees, US$	European Union	United Kingdom	United States (§ 44(e) filing)	United States (intent-to-use filing)
1 class, through first renewal	$1,908	$600	$1,325	$1,475
3 classes, through first renewal	$2,357	$920	$3,975	$4,425
1 class, 20 years	$2,862	$927	$1,975	$2,125
3 classes, 20 years	$3,536	$1,406	$5,925	$6,375

For a single-class mark, the U.S. is actually cheaper over 20 years than the EU, because the EU’s high first-class fee is charged again at every renewal. For the multi-class portfolios most European brands hold, the U.S. becomes the most expensive of the three by a wide margin: a three-class U.S. registration costs about 1.7 times its EU equivalent over 20 years and about four times its UK equivalent. Professional fees widen the gap further, since U.S. prosecution more often involves office actions and every U.S. maintenance filing requires gathering specimens of use.

Practical takeaways. Claim only the classes you will genuinely use in the U.S. since each extra class costs US$350 at filing and US$975 more over the first renewal cycle. Prefer pre-approved ID Manual terms to avoid the US$200 free-form surcharge. And when the year 5–6 declaration comes due, delete classes and goods no longer in use rather than paying to maintain them.

Three Routes into the U.S.

European owners can reach the USPTO three ways, and the right choice depends on whether the brand is already sold in the U.S. and how much the owner values flexibility over convenience.

	Direct application, use or intent to use (§ 1(a)/1(b))	Direct application on an EU or national registration (§ 44(d)/44(e))	Madrid designation of the U.S. (§ 66(a))
Best for	Brands already sold in the U.S., or launching soon	Owners who want a U.S. registration before launching, with full flexibility	Owners adding the U.S. to a multi-country filing
Use before registration	Yes (statement of use for intent-to-use)	No	No
Priority from EU filing	No	Yes, if filed within 6 months (§ 44(d))	Yes, if the international application claims it
Government fee	US$350 per class, plus US$150 per class for a statement of use	US$350 per class	CHF 460 per class (about US$600)
U.S. attorney needed at filing	Yes	Yes	No; needed only to answer a refusal
Can amend to the Supplemental Register	Yes	Yes	No
Depends on the EU mark	No	Yes, for § 44(e) (the foreign registration must be valid when the U.S. registration issues)	Yes, for 5 years (central attack)

For most European brands planning a U.S. launch, a Section 44(d) filing within six months of the EU application is the strongest option: it secures the earlier EU priority date, allows registration under Section 44(e) without proof of use, and keeps the flexibility of a national U.S. file, including access to the Supplemental Register if the mark is found descriptive. Madrid is cheaper to administer across many countries but ties the U.S. right to the fate of the EU basic mark for five years.

Whichever route is chosen, the U.S. Counsel Rule applies to every EU-domiciled owner. Since August 3, 2019, foreign-domiciled applicants must be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney in direct filings and in any response to a refusal.

The Use Requirement: Getting and Keeping a U.S. Registration

Section 44(e) and Madrid registrations let European owners register before selling in the U.S., but they do not exempt the mark from use. Every U.S. registration must eventually be backed by genuine use in U.S. commerce, and the clock starts sooner than most European owners expect.

• Bona fide intent at filing. Every applicant, including Section 44 and Madrid applicants, must declare a bona fide intention to use the mark in U.S. commerce for the listed goods and services. Filing for goods the owner never plans to sell in the U.S. invites cancellation.
• Declaration of use at years 5–6. The owner must file a Section 8 declaration (Section 71 for Madrid registrations) with a specimen of current use for each class, at US$325 per class. Missing it cancels the registration.
• Three years of non-use means presumed abandonment. A competitor can petition to cancel on that basis, and the burden shifts to the owner to prove an intent to resume use.
• Expungement and reexamination. Since the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020, anyone can ask the USPTO to remove goods or services for which the mark was never used, a tool aimed squarely at registrations obtained without use.
• Post-registration audits. The USPTO audits a share of Section 8 and Section 71 declarations and requires proof of use for additional items; goods that cannot be supported are deleted.

What counts as use is also narrower than many owners assume. Use means goods sold or transported in U.S. commerce bearing the mark, or services actually rendered to U.S. customers. A European website accessible from the U.S., advertising alone, or sales only in Europe to U.S. tourists generally will not do.

Well-known European marks face a related trap. U.S. courts are divided on whether a mark famous abroad but unused in the U.S. can block a U.S. user, so an owner who relies on its European reputation rather than registration and use may find no remedy.

Top Ten Recommendations for European Brands

1. Run a U.S. clearance search before launch, not after. Search the USPTO register, state registrations, and unregistered use online and in the marketplace. An EUIPO search tells you nothing about a Texas company that has used a similar name since 2015.
2. File within six months of your EU application. A Section 44(d) claim secures the EU priority date in the U.S. and lets you register under Section 44(e) without first proving use.
3. Choose the route deliberately. Use a direct Section 44 filing for your most important U.S. brands; reserve Madrid for secondary marks and broad multi-country programs where convenience outweighs the five-year dependency risk.
4. Rewrite your goods and services for the USPTO. Translate broad EU class headings into specific U.S. terms from the USPTO ID Manual. This avoids refusals and the US$200-per-class surcharge for free-form text.
5. Translate your mark through U.S. eyes. Under the doctrine of foreign equivalents, a German, French, Italian, or Spanish word that describes the goods will be refused just as its English translation would be.
6. Claim only what you will actually sell in the U.S. Every applicant swears to a bona fide intent to use. Overbroad lists invite expungement petitions and cost money at the year 5–6 declaration.
7. Build a U.S. use record from day one. Keep dated invoices, shipping records, U.S. retailer listings, and photographs of labeled goods. You will need them for the Section 8 or Section 71 declaration and for any challenge.
8. Calendar the U.S. deadlines separately from your EU docket. The year 5–6 declaration of use and the three-year abandonment presumption have no EU equivalent and are the most common way European owners lose U.S. registrations.
9. Contract around your U.S. distributor. State in writing that the brand and all U.S. registrations belong to you and require the distributor to assign anything it files. Distributor-filed registrations are a recurring source of U.S. disputes.
10. Enforce actively once registered. Record the registration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop counterfeit imports, monitor the USPTO for confusingly similar applications.