Flood of EU brands expected

After Romania joins the European Union, the 700,000 brands registered on the EU market will be automatically acknowledged on the domestic market, as well, but the Romanian brands will become community brands only by being registered on the single market.

“Romanian and community brands can coexist as long as merchants do not consider this a breach of their intellectual property rights,” said Carmen Stefan, an expert in brand research with OSIM (the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks). At present, the number of brands registered on the domestic market has reached 200,000. Last year, a number of 21,000 new registration applications were sent to OSIM, of which 10,000 came from foreign merchants.

Once multinationals have entered Romania, they will develop specialised departments or will consult experts on intellectual property rights, in order avoid problems related to product counterfeiting.

“Generally, foreign companies are more concerned about protecting their intellectual rights than domestic ones. Companies coming from abroad with massive investments and international brand promotion are very well aware that when entering a new market, they have to do everything they can from a legal standpoint to protect their brands,” said Robert Rosu, Tuca, Zbarcea & Asociatii law firm”s partner in charge of the litigation and arbitration department.