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You\u2019ve spent years building your brand. You\u2019ve invested in positioning it, making it recognizable, and giving it real value. Then you decide to expand into a new country\u2014only to discover that someone else has already registered your brand name there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have no connection to your business. They haven\u2019t operated under that brand. Yet they hold a right you don\u2019t: legal ownership through registration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not an isolated case. It is a widespread practice known as trademark squatting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what happened to Arturo\u2019s, a Venezuelan restaurant chain founded in 1986. With dozens of establishments and international presence, the company discovered that in 2020 a third party had registered its trademark in Spain for restaurant services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without real activity, without any link to the original business, but with a legal position that allowed them to block its entry into the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In most trademark systems, the right is not granted to the one who first uses the trademark worldwide, but to the one who first registers it in a specific territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that, if a company has not protected its trademark in a country, a third party can move ahead and acquire formal rights over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From that point on, the room for action changes. The holder of the registration can prevent the use of the trademark or condition its transfer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Arturo\u2019s case, the applicant offered to sell the registration for \u20ac10,000, later increasing the amount to \u20ac28,000 without clear justification. That conduct would ultimately be key to proving bad faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In May 2025, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) declared the registration null due to bad faith, under Article 51.1(b) of the Spanish Trademark Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The decision was based on several elements: the absence of real use of the trademark by the applicant, the identity between the signs, the coincidence in the services and, especially, the offer to sell the registration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The company that owned the original trademark managed to recover its name, but the process was not without costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was necessary to provide evidence, prove the notoriety of the sign and sustain an administrative procedure that lasted over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The question is inevitable: what would have happened if the trademark had been registered before entering Spain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is simple: the conflict would not have existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prevention remains the most effective tool. Some basic measures can significantly reduce this risk:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n A trademark is not just a commercial asset. It is also a right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, as this case shows, that right often depends on who gets to registration first, not on who built it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have doubts about how to register your trademark or protect it in other countries, at Lawwwing we support you throughout the entire process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Expanding your brand without registering it in advance can be costly. The Arturo\u2019s case in Spain shows how trademark squatting allows third parties to legally appropriate a name and block its use, even without real activity. Discover the risks, the OEPM\u2019s decision, and how to protect your trademark before entering new markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[697],"tags":[667,669,694,695,696],"class_list":["post-10999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industrial-property","tag-euipo-en","tag-oemp-en","tag-industrial-property","tag-trademarks","tag-trademark-registration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10999"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11072,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10999\/revisions\/11072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawwwing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}This Is What Happened to Arturo\u2019s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How Trademark Squatting Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Decision of the OEPM<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Winning Does Not Mean You Did Not Lose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to Avoid Trademark Squatting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n