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Selling to Canada, the UK or the EU? When You Need a Trademark There

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"I have a U.S. trademark, and I'm starting to ship to Canada and Europe. Am I covered there?" No. A U.S. registration protects your brand in the United States and nowhere else. Canada, the UK and the EU each run their own trademark system, and each one decides who owns a name inside its borders. Whether you need to file there depends on how much of your business is there now, how much will be, and what it would cost you if someone else got the name first.

Here's how the three systems work, and how to think about when to file.

Trademark rights stop at the border

Trademark rights are territorial. Your U.S. registration gives you rights in the U.S. Selling into another country, even a lot, doesn't stretch those rights to cover it.

The bigger surprise for U.S. sellers is how the other systems treat use. In the U.S., rights come mainly from using the mark, and a U.S. business can't finish a registration until it shows the USPTO the mark is in use. In the UK and the EU, and in Canada since 2019, you can register a mark without having used it there first. You're still expected to use it after it registers, or it can be challenged, but the registration comes first.

That means someone else can file for, and register, your brand name in those places before you've shipped a single order there. The filing date matters a great deal.

Canada

Canada's trademark office is the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, or CIPO. Canada overhauled its system in June 2019. Since then, applications don't need a declaration of use before registration, and the old filing bases, like use or proposed use, are gone. Canada also joined the Madrid system that month.

For an online application filed and paid in 2026, CIPO's fee is CA$491.06 for the first class of goods or services and CA$149.04 for each additional class. Those fees go up slightly on January 1, 2027, and CIPO charges the fee in effect on the day it receives payment.

The UK

The UK has been separate from the EU trademark system since Brexit. As of January 1, 2021, EU trade marks are no longer protected in the UK. Owners of registered EU trade marks got a matching UK registration automatically on that date, but that was a one-time conversion. A new EU filing today doesn't reach the UK, and a UK filing doesn't reach the EU.

UK applications go to the UK Intellectual Property Office. Since April 1, 2026, the online fee is £205 for one class and £60 for each additional class.

The EU

The EU has a single filing that covers all 27 member states: the EU trade mark, filed with the EU Intellectual Property Office, or EUIPO. One application, one registration, one renewal every 10 years.

EUIPO's online fee is €850 for one class, €50 for the second class, and €150 for each class after that.

The catch is that it's all or nothing. An EU trade mark covers the whole EU or none of it, so a conflicting earlier mark in a single member state can block the entire application. If that happens, the application can be converted into national applications in the countries where there's no problem.

Amazon and other marketplaces

If you sell on Amazon outside the U.S., this goes past legal theory. Amazon says the trademark for Brand Registry has to come from the trademark office of a country with a corresponding Amazon store. You set up one global Brand Registry account, enroll with a single country's trademark office, and add trademarks from other countries after you're approved. Amazon recommends submitting trademarks for each country-based Amazon store you want to sell in.

Amazon doesn't say a U.S. registration will carry you in its other stores. If you want Brand Registry's protection in Amazon's Canadian, UK or European stores, the safer plan is a trademark filing in each of those markets. How Brand Registry works in the U.S. is covered in getting into Amazon Brand Registry.

How to decide, and how to file

A few questions do most of the work.

Where are your customers now, and where will they be in two or three years? A trickle of Canadian orders is different from a planned UK launch.

Where is your inventory? If you're shipping stock into warehouses in another country, your brand is already operating there.

What would it cost to lose the name? If a stranger filed your brand in the EU tomorrow, would you have to rebrand there, or could you shrug it off?

If filing makes sense, there are two routes. You can file directly with each office, or, if you already have a U.S. application or registration, you can use the Madrid Protocol to request protection in Canada, the UK and the EU through one international application. Either way, each office examines your mark under its own law, and filing or responding to an objection abroad may require local counsel.

Both routes work best with a solid U.S. filing behind them, on a name you searched before you filed. It also helps to know what a trademark actually costs here before you add other countries. If you're getting the U.S. piece in place first, you can see how the search and filing packages work on the services page, and the FAQs page answers most of what comes up before a first call.

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Sources

This article is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

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