As an EU trademark owner, you can use one of the legal procedures like
ADR and
ICANN or, at the very least, go to court and win. Without the trademark, it would be more difficult to protect your name. Mostly, brand holders just buy a domain from cybersquatters at an inflated price.
Given that cybersquatters are attackers among many other groups on the internet, you have to be vigilant. It’s up to you to undertake a preventive step. A registered trademark will show attackers that you’re not an easy target.
- Somebody registers a trademark that’s similar to your logo. Then this company requires you to stop using their trademark.
It doesn’t matter whether it happens intentionally or unintentionally - you risk losing your logo at all. Of course, there is
a procedure to challenge the registration of this trademark. But it’s not a piece of cake to prove that you actually were a proprietor of this ‘non-registered use-based trademark’.
Besides, ‘a scope of protection [of non-registered trademarks] is not uniform’. And some EU Member States including convenient jurisdictions such as
Estonia or
Cyprus and big markets such as France or Spain do not protect unregistered trademarks.