Introduction
United Kingdom and Irish trademark laws now allow multiple class registrations. If you have several registrations for exactly the same mark (e.g. each one for a different class of goods/services) in either of these countries, then you can apply to merge them together into one registration. For Eire the registrations need to have the same date of registration and priority (if any).

We understand that some other EU countries are to follow suit.

What are the benefits?
• Reduced costs for renewals as compared with   renewing each registration separately.

• Reduced costs for other operations involving   the merged registration, e.g. recordal, change   of address, as opposed to dealing with separate  registrations.

What are the major disadvantages?
• For the UK, if registrations to be merged have   different registration dates, the merged    registration will take the later of the dates.

• If you merge registrations that form the basis for  registrations in certain Commonwealth    countries, a merged UK registration may give   problems.

 What are the costs?
•  In the UK there are no official fees. Our charges (at April 2008) start from £85 for the first two registrations merged together, and £60 for each additional registration involved. This reflects the additional record keeping involved.

• At current rates the saving for the merger followed by renewal of two registrations is approximately £135. There will be savings for subsequent renewals and probably if other operations are involved. There will also be larger savings if merger followed by a renewal of more than two registrations is involved.

• For Eire, the charges will vary according to circumstances such as the number of registrations to be merged and the amount of work which would need to be done to amend our database. If you will send us details of your requirements, we would be pleased to advise.

This information is simplified and must not be taken as a definitive statement of the law or practice