How much does it cost to register a company name in 2024?

Fees at the Polish Patent Office (UPRP)

If you run a local business in Rzeszów or the surrounding area and do not plan to expand abroad, the Polish Patent Office is the most common choice. For the application of one trademark in one class alone, you will pay 400 PLN, provided you do it online. If you prefer paper, the price jumps to 450 PLN. This is the fee you pay at the very beginning, and no one will refund it, even if the office rejects your application due to errors in the name. Last year we saw 47 such cases where entrepreneurs tried to act on their own and lost that money through simple descriptive errors.

The second part of the costs appears when the office issues a positive decision. Then you have to pay for a 10-year protection period. It costs 400 PLN for each class of goods and 90 PLN for publishing information about the granted protection right. Together, for one class, you end up with 890 PLN in official fees. The matter is clear: you pay once a decade and have peace of mind. However, it is worth remembering that each additional class (e.g., if you sell shoes but also conduct training) adds another 400-450 PLN to the bill. The average client from Podkarpacie usually chooses 2 classes, which results in approximately 1340 PLN in total official costs.

We often get questions about whether these fees can be paid in installments. The Patent Office in Warsaw does not offer installment sales – you must have the cash at the start. However, looking at it from a 10-year perspective, protecting your brand costs you less than 9 PLN per month. That's cheaper than a subscription for the cheapest movie service. At Karpaty Insight Group, we always repeat that it is the cheapest insurance policy you can buy for your company, especially when your competition is just waiting for you to stumble.

Protecting your brand in Poland costs you less than 9 PLN per month over a decade. It's the cheapest policy for your company.

Registering a mark in the European Union (EUIPO)

For companies that sell their products online or ship goods to Germany, Slovakia, or France, EUIPO is a better choice. Here prices are higher because they are given in euros, but the scope of protection covers 27 countries simultaneously. The basic fee for filing a mark in one class is 850 euros. If you want to add a second class, you pay only 50 euros extra. The third and each subsequent class costs 150 euros. For example, a furniture manufacturer from near Krosno who registered a logo with us in March 2024 paid 900 euros in official fees for two classes (production and sales).

The advantage of the EU system is speed. If no one files an opposition, you can have the certificate in hand after only 4-5 months. In Poland, this process often drags on for 6-8 months, much of which is just waiting for a letter from the office. Facts matter: in 2023, we helped register 83 EU marks for companies from southern Poland. Most of them decided on this step after competitors from another country started copying their product photos. With an EU certificate, you can block an unfair seller on Allegro or Amazon in a few hours.

It is worth mentioning the SME Fund program. This is an EU initiative that allows you to recover up to 74.5% of official fee costs. Thanks to this, the real cost of registering a mark in the EU can drop from 850 euros to just 212.50 euros. In 2024, the limit of funds in this fund is limited, so it's first-come, first-served. We handle filling out these applications for our clients because we know an entrepreneur has more important things on their mind than fighting bureaucracy from Alicante. So far, we have secured refunds for 31 of our clients.

Attorney's fee – what are you actually paying for?

Many business owners ask: 'If I can send the application myself, why do I need Mateusz and his people?'. Straight to the point: we do it so you don't have to correct the application for two years. Our work starts with an audit. We check the databases to see if the name you came up with is already taken. The cost of such a search with us is 480 PLN net. This is a key moment. If it turns out that a similar company exists, e.g., in Krakow, and already has a registered mark, you will find out from us now, and not from a payment demand from their lawyer in 3 months.

Preparing the application itself, selecting classes (the so-called Nice classification), and overseeing the process costs in the range of 1250-1850 PLN, depending on the complexity of the case. We are not the cheapest on the market and do not intend to be. We know Rzeszów offices from the inside and know how to write justifications so they pass the first time. In the last quarter, we handled 56 cases, and only in two did the office have additional questions, which we answered within 24 hours without additional costs for the client.

In the price of our service, you also get trademark monitoring after registration. This is important because the office will not inform you if someone else tries to register an almost identical name six months later. It is your duty to file an opposition. We watch these deadlines for you. Without professional support, it's easy to miss the 3-month protest window, which can cost the company the loss of brand uniqueness and the need for expensive rebranding in the future. Honestly speaking: it's better to pay us once for proper preparation than to pay lawyers later to get you out of trouble.

You pay so as not to have to correct the application for two years. We know the procedures from the inside and avoid the pitfalls.

Hidden costs and 'certificate' scams

You have to be careful about one thing. A few weeks after you file a mark at the office, an official-looking letter will arrive at your address in Rzeszów. It will have a logo resembling an eagle or the Union flag, stamps, and an amount to pay, e.g., 2840 PLN for 'entry into the register'. This is a scam. Scammers follow public application databases and send thousands of such letters to naive entrepreneurs. Real fees are paid exclusively to the accounts of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland in Warsaw or EUIPO in Spain. We always verify every letter our clients receive.

Another cost that is rarely mentioned is the need to translate the list of goods if you register a mark outside the EU, e.g., in the USA or China. While translations are included in the price in the Union, for exotic destinations, the costs of sworn translators can range from 350 to 1100 PLN. Added to this are power of attorney fees (17 PLN in Poland) if an attorney represents you. These are small amounts, but it's worth knowing about them so the budget at the end of the month adds up. At Karpaty Insight Group, you get a clear table of costs from us before signing the contract.

To sum up: in 2024, prepare about 2300-2800 PLN for brand protection in Poland (including our fee and official fees). For Europe, you need about 5500-6500 PLN. Is that a lot? If your company generates 30-40 thousand PLN turnover per month, the cost of securing your entire life's work is a fraction of your profits. Without protection, your brand legally belongs to whoever registers it first. Don't let it be your competitor. We've had clients come to us in tears because they had to take down signs after 5 years of building a reputation. Don't be one of them.