Trademarkia (or “Trademarkia P.C.”) is the registered trade name of the law firm LegalForce RAPC Worldwide P.C. The law firm operates www.trademarkia.com, which provides the Internet’s largest, free search tool with a database of more than 8 million trademarks and logos. Other than searching the trademarks for free, a visitor of the website may also place orders on www.trademarkia.com to seek Trademarkia P.C.’s legal services. After the law firm conducts the required conflict checks and accepts the payment, and after a written retainer agreement is entered into, the visitor becomes the client of Trademarkia P.C..

Since 2009, Trademarkia P.C. has helped more than 100,000 clients registering trademarks in more than 170 countries around the world.

The lands that today comprise Croatia were part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire until the close of World War I. In 1918, the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known after 1929 as Yugoslavia. Following World War II, Yugoslavia became a federal independent Communist state under the strong hand of Marshal TITO. Although Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took four years of fighting before occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands. Under UN supervision, the last Serbheld enclave in eastern Slavonia was returned to Croatia in 1998.

The applicant for a trademark application or the owner of a registered trademark can be an individual person or a legal entity. Foreign individual owners or foreign legal entities, without a seat or a domicile or a usual residence in Croatia, must appoint a local agent to proceed with the Trademark's Procedure.

The trademark can be a sign which can be shown graphically, particularly words, personal names, designs, letters, numerals, the appearance or the packaging of goods, three-dimensional appearance, colors, or every combination of the above-mentioned signs. However, these signs (in combination or not) have to allow differentiation between the goods and the services of two different proprietors.

Marks not eligible for registration include: 1. signs which may not be protected as trademarks in accordance with requirements set out in Article 2 of this Law, 2. signs which are devoid of distinctive character in relation to the goods or services for which registration is requested, 3. signs which consist exclusively of signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin, or the time of production of the goods or of rendering of the service, or to designate other characteristics of the goods or services, 4. signs which consist exclusively of signs or indications which have become customary in the current language or in good faith and the established practices of the trade, 5. signs which consist exclusively of the shape which results from the natufe of the goods themselves, or the shape of goods which is necessary to obtain a technical result, or the shape which gives substantial value to the goods, 6. signs, which are contrary to public policy or to accepted principles of morality, 7. signs which are of such a nature as to deceive the public, for instance as to the nature, quality or geographical origin of the goods or services, 8. signs, which have not been authorized by the competent authorities and are to be refused pursuant to Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (hereinafter: "the Paris Convention".) 9. signs for wines which contain or consist of geographical indications identifying wines or signs for spirits which contain or consist of geographical indications identifying spirits with respect to such wines or spirits not having that geographical origin, 10. signs which contain the name or abbreviation of the name, State armorial bearing, emblem, flag or other official sign of the Republic of Croatia, or a part thereof, and the imitations thereof, except with the authorization of the competent authority of the Republic of Croatia. Registration shall not be refused to signs specified in paragraphs 2 to 4 of this Article if the applicant proves that the sign has, before the date of application for registration and following the use which has been made of it, acquired a distinctive character in respect of the goods or services for which registration is requested.

The rights conferred by a trademark has effect against third parties from the date of publication of the registration of the trademark. Therefore there are no rights belonging to third parties in respect of similar marks on the same or different goods and services.

The trademark application must contain: - the filing or application form; - the applicant's full name and address; - the list of goodslservices in each class desired; - if the trademark is a device mark, two prints of the mark -the Power of Attorney (notarization and legalization not required); - the priority document (if applicable); -The applicant can opt to have the first day of the exhibition of goods bearing the mark, or exhibition in association with services, used as the filing date of the application, provided that he files the application in Croatia within six months of that date. Such use of the mark is called, "exhibition." If the applicant invokes this exhibition priority right, he must also file with the Office a certificate issued by the competent authority of the member State of the Paris Union or the member State of the World Trade Organization indicating the type of exhibition, the venue thereof, its opening and closing dates and the first day of the exhibition of the goods or services specified in the application. Representation: Residency or a physical presence in the country is not necessary to file applications for registration. A power of attorney must be signed and sealed. Fees: Application for registration: 85 EUR for application in up to 3 classes, and for each additional class: 20 EUR Renewal: 210 EUR for registered trademark in up to 3 classes, and for each additional class: 40 EUR.

Applications for registration of a trademark are filed with the Croatian Trademark Office. The decisions made by the Office are not subject to any appeal, but an administrative lawsuit may be instituted. The examination of the correctness of the application includes the examination of all the requirements prescribed by the Croatian Law & Regulations for Trademarks. The trademark application will comply with these requirements iE - the application for registration is filed at the Office. -the applicant has not, in one application, requested registration of more than one sign for which protection is sought. -the application for registration complies comply with the administrative requirements for the filing (see above). - the application for the registration complies with the examination requirements for the registration. If the application complies with all these requirements, the application may be published in the Croatian Intellectual Property Gazette. After the publication, third parties may lodge an opposition. If no opposition is filed within three (3) months from the publication date, the trademark shall be entered in the trademark register, subject to the prior payment of the procedural charges for the maintenance of the trademark for the first 10-year period and for the publication of the data on the trademark. If the procedural fees previously referred to are not paid, the application for registration of a trademark will be rejected. The data concerning the trademark will be published in the Croatian Intellectual Property, Gazette no later than within three months from the date of entry of the trademark in the register. On the request of the holder of a trademark, and subject to the prior payment of the prescribed procedural charges for the issuance of the trademark certificate, the Office will issue the certificate to the holder of the trademark no later than three months from the date of publication of the trademark in the Office's Official Gazette.

The protection of a registered trademark begins on the date upon which the application was filed and applies for 10 years from the date of registration. The registration may be renewed for 10-year periods. The applications for renewal must be accompanied by the payment of the official fee and must occur no later than six months after the expiration of the registration period. The trademark may be renewed for all or part of the goods andfor services. The renewal is listed in the Trademark Register and published in the Official Gazette. If trademark owner fails to renew their registration he must move to reinstatement his rights or they will be lost.

A holder of a trademark is entitled to use a trademark in respect of the goods or services for which it is registered. Examples of the use of marks include apposition/application of the mark on brochures, samples, data sheets, invoices, labels, packaging, etc. The following uses of the trademark shall constitute use by the owner: - use in a form differing in elements which do not alter the distinctive character of the trademark in respect of the form in which it was registered; - affixing of the trademark to goods or to the packaging thereof in Croatia concerned solely for export purposes; -use of the trademark with the consent of the holder or by any person who has authority to use a collective mark or a guarantee mark. - if, within a period of five years following the date of registration, the trademark is not in used or if the use has been interrupted for a period of five years, cancellation of the trademark may be requested by third parties.

Governing authority: The Croatian DNS Registry has adopted regulations regarding the organization of the top-level 'hr' Internet domain and the principles of managing the domain. The Croatian Academic and Research Network- CARNet-is the administrator of the top-level "hr" domain. It was authorized by the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) in 1991 There are six types of subdomains of the HR domain, and registrations are handled according to the provisions of the CARNet Regulations: 1. HR-P domains-domains for the virtual identity of legal persons (i.e., producta.hr); 2. HR-F domains-domains for the virtual identity of natural persons (i.e., davor-boskovic.from.hr); 3. HR-D domains-domains for virtual identity of private businesses of natural persons (i.e., boskovic-patents.hr); 4. HR-T domains-domains for market demands and other additional demands of legal and natural persons (i.e., producta.com.hr); 5. HR-V domains-domains important for Croatia and the Croatian information space (i.e., science.hr; culture.hr); 6. HR-I domains-domains for the improvement of Croatian information space (birds.hr; cars.hr). Registration process: There are no examinations of domain names to check for potential conflicts with registered trademarks. All domain names are registered indefinitely, except HR-T, for which annual renewal applies, and HR-I domain, for which biannual renewal is required. Enforcement of IP rights: The owner of a prior mark can obtain the cancellation of a domain name identical to his mark and reserved after his mark's registration date, provided that the domain user is misusing the domain, violating the intellectual property, especially copyright or trademark rights, i.e. protected verbal signs registered or acknowledged by the State Intellectual Property Office. Deactivation through an emergency procedure is available. Through this procedure, an owner may have the domain name transferred to him if in the cancellation procedure the trademark owner proves that he owns a valid trademark registration. The request for cancellation and deactivation of a domain name is handled in an arbitration proceeding and the owner of the trademark should file through his attorney a request for an arbitration proceeding. CARNet offers a dispute resolution process that is handled by an arbitrator. The main guidelines are stated in Rules on arbitration for solving disputes regarding subdomains within.hr domain, issued by the CARNet's Board of Governors. It is not necessary to go to court as all disputes are guided by Rules on arbitration for solving disputes regarding subdomains within the.hr domain. Requirements: Usually it is only necessary to submit evidence of prior trademark registration in Croatia. However, it is always useful to prove that the domain name was registered in a bad faith. Remedies: CARNet does not grant any remedies, it can only settle the disputes and transfer the rights to domain name. However, a Lawsuit against infringer of domain name can be filed requestin remedies. An owner of a domain name reserved before the filing of a mark by another party usually cannot obtain the cancellation of the mark. However, it is always possible that an owner of a domain name has become well-known by its domain name and such owner may attempt to register a mark based on the corresponding domain name. Such an owner, to enforce his rights, must prove that she has 'older' rights in the domain name and that registration of the mark was made in bad faith.

The Trademark Law ha's no provisions regarding customs measures for the regulation and control of counterfeit goods. However, the measures and procedures regarding counterfeits are regulated by the Decree on Custom Measures for Goods that Infringe the Intellectual Property Rights of Others.