Glossary
French: certificat d'enregistrement de marque
The registration certificate is the document issued by the INPI or the EUIPO at the end of the trademark registration process — the counterpart of the certificate of registration issued by the USPTO. It is the formal proof that examination is complete, no opposition succeeded (or none was filed), and the mark now enjoys the full bundle of rights that come with registration for a term of 10 years from the filing date, renewable indefinitely.
These timelines are notably faster than the typical USPTO route — largely because neither the INPI nor the EUIPO examines applications on relative grounds (prior marks) ex officio, and because no evidence of use is required at any stage. A US applicant used to waiting through a substantive USPTO examiner’s search and, often, one or more office actions before publication should expect the French and EU processes to move faster when the application is clean and unopposed, and to move only as slowly as an opposition, if filed, makes them.
The EUIPO certificate is entirely dematerialized: it is delivered only as a digital file. The INPI also issues digital registration certificates. Neither office issues the kind of embossed paper certificate long associated with the USPTO’s registration ceremony — for both the INPI and the EUIPO, the certificate is essentially a formal export from the official trademark register confirming the mark’s status, class list, owner and dates.
The certificate is not merely a keepsake: it is frequently the document requested by banks, licensees, customs authorities, or foreign counsel as proof of ownership when a mark is used as collateral, licensed, recorded against counterfeit imports, or asserted as a basis for a further filing abroad — including a priority right claim or an international trademark application designating other countries. Losing track of the certificate is rarely fatal, since both offices maintain the authoritative register online, but having it on hand speeds up any of these downstream uses.
A US company registers its mark at the EUIPO and, eighteen months later, wants to grant a distribution license to a French partner. The French partner’s bank requires proof of the licensor’s ownership before releasing financing tied to the brand — the EUIPO registration certificate, together with a register extract, is typically what satisfies that request.
An opposition filed within the applicable window — two months from publication in France, three months in the EU — delays or blocks issuance. See INPI opposition and EUIPO opposition.
The certificate is the finish line of French trademark registration and EU trademark registration, and it becomes relevant again at trademark renewal and whenever ownership is transferred — see trademark assignment recordal. See also: trademark registration, trademark filing.