You have found the right name for your business. The domain is available, the logo has been designed and perhaps you have already started trading.
There is, however, another question worth asking: do you actually own the trade mark?
Registering a trade mark in Malta can give its owner an enforceable legal right over a brand in relation to the goods and services covered by the registration. For businesses investing money and reputation into a name, logo or other distinctive sign, registration can therefore be an important part of protecting that investment.
Step 1: Decide What You Want to Protect
A trade mark is not necessarily the same thing as a company name.
Your company may, for example, be registered as ABC Holdings Limited while trading with customers under an entirely different brand. It is the sign by which customers identify your goods or services that will usually be of greatest relevance from a trade mark perspective.
A Maltese trade mark may include words, personal names, designs, letters, numbers, colours, shapes and sounds, provided that the sign is capable of distinguishing one undertaking’s goods or services from another’s.
The first strategic decision is therefore identifying precisely what you want to protect.
A business with a distinctive name and logo might consider registering the word itself, the logo, or both. These registrations do not necessarily provide identical protection.
Step 2: Search Before Filing
One of the most expensive times to discover another business has an earlier conflicting trade mark is after you have already invested heavily in your brand.
The Industrial Property Registrations Directorate (IPRD) therefore recommends carrying out a pre-application search. The Maltese National Trade Mark Register can be searched without charge, while the IPRD also offers a formal pre-application search service for a fee.
A search should not necessarily stop at identical words.
Depending upon the circumstances, an earlier trade mark can create difficulties even where the spelling, appearance or sound is not exactly the same. The goods and services concerned are also relevant.
A good clearance exercise therefore asks a broader question than simply: “Has somebody registered this exact name?”
Step 3: Identify Your Classes
Trade marks are registered for particular goods and services.
The international Nice Classification divides these into 45 classes. Classes 1 to 34 broadly concern goods, while Classes 35 to 45 concern services.
Choosing the right classes is one of the most important parts of an application.
Imagine a business called “Northstar”. Knowing its name tells us very little about the protection it needs. Northstar might sell clothing, develop software, operate restaurants or provide financial consulting. Each business could require a very different specification.
The objective is not simply to collect as many classes as possible. It is to identify the goods and services for which protection genuinely makes commercial sense.
Step 4: File the Application
Applications for Maltese trade marks can be filed online with the IPRD.
As at September 2026, the official filing fee is €115 per trade mark, per class. The registration provides ten years of protection and may subsequently be renewed for further ten-year periods.
An application will identify, amongst other matters, the applicant, the trade mark itself and the goods and services for which registration is sought.
This is where apparently small decisions can have significant long-term consequences. Once an application has been filed, the ability to amend it is restricted. In particular, an applicant cannot simply expand the specification later to add goods and services that were omitted from the original application.