Trademark Opposition: Deadline, Process, Chances of Success

Three months. That is how much time the owner of an earlier trademark has to file an opposition against your newly registered mark, under § 42 (1) MarkenG. The deadline runs from publication of the registration, not from the filing date. Whether you want to oppose someone else's mark or a third party is opposing yours, this guide walks you through the deadline, the process, and the fees at the DPMA and the EUIPO, plus what happens once the window closes. Practical know-how, not legal advice.

Key Takeaways

• Opposition deadline: three months from publication of the registration (§ 42 (1) MarkenG), not six.
• A DPMA opposition costs 250 euros plus 50 euros per additional trademark asserted; the EUIPO charges a flat 320 euros.
• Both offices offer a cooling-off period for settlement talks; at the DPMA at least two months.
• Missed the deadline? § 51 MarkenG still allows a later cancellation request based on earlier rights.

Before a third-party mark ever gets close enough to yours to require an opposition, it pays to look first: check your trademark before you file.

How much time do you have to file an opposition?

Three months from publication of the registration, that is the entire deadline under § 42 (1) MarkenG (Gesetze im Internet, 2025). It applies to owners of earlier trademarks or trade names. Once it expires without an opposition, the younger mark stands considerably more secure.

One misunderstanding comes up again and again. The opposition deadline is often confused with the six-month priority period under the Paris Convention. That is a completely different concept: the priority period runs from the filing date of the first application in another country and governs how you later file the same mark elsewhere while keeping that same priority date. It has nothing to do with opposition. In conversations with founders, this mix-up comes up so often it almost deserves its own chapter.

Letting the three-month deadline pass does not automatically close off every path. What still remains is covered further down, in the section on the missed deadline. Until then, the rule is simple: if you hold an earlier mark and spot a colliding new application, keep a close eye on the publication date in the trademark gazette.

The opposition deadline against a German trademark application is three months from publication of the registration, set out in § 42 (1) MarkenG (Gesetze im Internet, 2025). It is independent of the six-month priority period under the Paris Convention, which serves a different purpose.

The process of an opposition proceeding

An opposition examines only relative grounds for refusal, that is, whether a likelihood of confusion exists between two marks covering similar goods or services. It can be filed by anyone holding an earlier right, such as an earlier trademark, a trade name, or a protected designation of origin under § 42 (1) MarkenG.

Once the opposition is filed, both offices offer a so-called cooling-off period, time set aside for settlement talks. At the DPMA, under § 42 (4) MarkenG, it runs at least two months and is granted on a joint request from both sides. At the EUIPO, it starts at two months from notice of admissibility and can be extended multiple times on a joint request from both sides. Either party can also end the cooling-off period early.

If the parties do not settle, the responsible office examines the merits. The review centers on the core question of every opposition: are the signs and the goods or services identical or similar enough to create a likelihood of confusion? The outcome is a decision that either cancels the younger mark entirely, partially, or not at all. For how examiners weigh that similarity in detail, see Likelihood of Confusion: Compare the Factors Yourself.

If no settlement is reached within the cooling-off period, the office issues a formal decision. There is a further route against that decision: DPMA decisions can be challenged with an appeal before the Federal Patent Court, EUIPO decisions with an appeal before the Office's Boards of Appeal. Both appeal routes are demanding and, as a rule, a case for a specialized lawyer.

What does an opposition proceeding cost?

An opposition at the DPMA costs a 250 euro base fee, while the EUIPO charges a flat 320 euros (DPMA, 2026; Regulation (EU) 2017/1001, Art. 46). The real difference only shows once several marks come into play: at the DPMA, each additional trademark asserted adds 50 euros, while at the EUIPO the fee stays at 320 euros.

This fee structure is rarely compared in practice, but it noticeably shapes the calculation. Anyone relying on several earlier marks at once pays no more at the EUIPO, while at the DPMA the cost climbs linearly with every additional mark.

	DPMA	EUIPO
Base fee	250 euros	320 euros
Each additional trademark asserted	+ 50 euros	no extra cost
Example with 3 marks asserted	350 euros	320 euros

This office fee is only part of the bill. On top often come costs for legal representation, especially once the proceeding goes past the cooling-off period and has to be decided on the merits. For a fuller cost picture around filing and research, see our overview of trademark search costs.

An opposition at the DPMA costs 250 euros plus 50 euros per additional trademark asserted; an opposition at the EUIPO costs a flat 320 euros regardless of how many marks are involved (DPMA, 2026; Regulation (EU) 2017/1001, Art. 46). With several earlier marks, the EUIPO route is therefore often the cheaper option.

What are the chances of success for an opposition?

A reliable success rate for oppositions cannot honestly be put into a number, not for the DPMA and not for the EUIPO. We do not have solid, officially confirmed figures on this, and a made-up percentage would do more harm than good here. What can be described clearly, though, are the factors that actually matter.

The core of every opposition is likelihood of confusion: identical or similar signs for identical or similar goods and services. The closer the signs and the offering sit together, the more an opposition becomes relevant in the first place. That is a qualitative assessment, not a probability calculation, and it always depends on the individual case.

That is exactly why assessing a specific case remains a matter for legal advice. Whether a given opposition stands a good chance is a legal question for a lawyer. What you can do yourself beforehand is research: the more thoroughly you search for similar earlier marks before your own filing, the less often you end up on the receiving end of an opposition at all. For more on systematic research before filing, see Trademark Search Before Filing: Avoid Costly Conflicts.

What happens if you miss the deadline?

The three-month deadline is then gone for good, but not every option disappears with it. Under § 51 MarkenG, as the owner of an earlier right you can still file a cancellation request based on the existence of earlier rights at a later point (Gesetze im Internet, 2025). Unlike opposition, this route is not tied to the three months after publication.

It matters to distinguish this from a completely different instrument. § 51 MarkenG concerns earlier rights, while § 49 MarkenG covers revocation for non-use, which only applies after five years of uninterrupted non-use. Both are independent grounds for cancellation, not variants of each other. Mixing them up means misjudging both the deadline and the requirements.

In practice, § 51 MarkenG is often misread as a "second chance" after opposition. It is not: it is a separate proceeding with its own requirements, one a lawyer needs to assess case by case, not an automatic follow-up step.

Common questions about trademark opposition

The FAQ block of this article sums up the most important questions around the deadline, fees, and process of an opposition proceeding. If you have spotted a collision yourself or received an opposition notice, doing your own research is the sensible first step, with the legal assessment following after.

Conclusion: watch the deadline, leave the assessment to a lawyer

The most important number first: three months from publication, that is the entire opposition deadline under § 42 MarkenG. Missing it does not leave you completely without options, since § 51 MarkenG keeps the cancellation route for earlier rights open, even if it runs as a separate proceeding.

On cost, the comparison is worth making: 250 euros at the DPMA plus 50 euros per additional mark, against a flat 320 euros at the EUIPO, and depending on how many marks you assert, either one can end up cheaper. Whether a specific opposition stands a real chance of success is, in the end, a question for the individual case, and that is where a specialized lawyer belongs at the table.

The best time to avoid ending up in this situation at all is before your own filing: check your trademark and use a structured EUIPO trademark search to spot possible collisions early, instead of running into them only at the opposition stage.