Frequently Asked Questions - prepayment account

A Silver Account is a type of Prepayment Account that is available only to Trademark Agents. If you opt for a Silver Account, the minimum deposit will be 5,000 USD. The remainder of the initial deposit will be non-refundable upon termination of your contract.

It is indeed possible to open a Prepayment Account as a Trademark Agent or Trademark Holder and only submit Trademark Records later on. The deposited funds remain at your disposal the entire duration of your contract. The remaining amount will be refunded to you upon terminating your contract.

You can follow the evolution of your Status Points in the Clearinghouse User Interface by going to your profile page.

Trademark Agents have access to the Advanced Fee Structure only, which means that you will only be able to opt for the Prepayment Account.

The initial minimum amount that must be deposited into a Prepayment Account before you will be eligible to submit a Trademark Record depends of the type of account you have selected.

If you opt for a Silver Account, the minimum deposit will be 5,000 USD. The Silver Account is only available to Trademark Agents. If you opt for a Silver Account, the remainder of the initial deposit will be non-refundable upon termination of your contract.

If you opt for a Gold account, the minimum deposit will be 15,000 USD. The remainder of this initial deposit will be refundable if you terminate your account. This amount can be used entirely for registering trademark records for the entire duration of the contract. When you terminate your agent contract, the remainder is reimbursed to your bank account, so there is no loss. If you opt as an Agent for a Gold Account, you will have the possibility to be listed in the list of the Official Agents of the Clearinghouse available at https://www.trademark-clearinghouse.com/agents. You will also have the possibility to receive marketing materials from the Clearinghouse.

The Clearinghouse will provide one pro-forma invoice per Prepayment Account, and is expecting a payment that matches the amount of the pro-forma invoice. Hence you need to pay for each account individually.

When you register for a Prepayment Account, a proforma invoice is generated for the initial deposit with the wire details. We have two bank accounts that you can wire to. After the funds have been received on our account, you can download the final invoice and the funds can be immediately used for recording trademarks.

When you want to top up your prepayment account, please wire the desired amount to one of the two bank accounts specified below. Any topup should be for at least 1,000 USD.

IMPORTANT:

1. Always include your Agent ID (starting with a U) in the reference of the payment.
   If it is not sent along, processing your payment will take longer.
2. Instruct your financial institution that your bear all transaction and conversion costs. In any other case, all costs associated with the wire will be deducted from the transferred amount.

COMPANY AND BANK DETAILS

Beneficiary: CHIP S.A.
Address: 21, rue Léon Laval
Zip & City: 3372 Leudelange
Country: Luxembourg

Bank account:

Bank name: ING Luxembourg
Account Number: LU 36 0141 6441 9360 3010
SWIFT/BIC: CELLLULL
Bank address: 52, route d'Esch L-2965 Luxembourg

Please note that we never send paper invoices. Should you receive one, it is likely to be fraudulent.

When you register for a Prepayment Account, a proforma invoice is generated for the initial deposit with the wire details. We have two bank accounts that you can wire to. After the funds have been received on our account, you can download the final invoice and the funds can be immediately used for recording trademarks.

When you want to top up your prepayment account, please wire the desired amount to one of the two bank accounts specified below. Any topup should be for at least 1,000 USD.

IMPORTANT:

1. Always include your Agent ID (starting with a U) in the reference of the payment.
   If it is not sent along, processing your payment will take longer.
2. Instruct your financial institution that your bear all transaction and conversion costs. In any other case, all costs associated with the wire will be deducted from the transferred amount.

COMPANY AND BANK DETAILS

Beneficiary: CHIP S.A.
Address: 21, rue Léon Laval
Zip & City: 3372 Leudelange
Country: Luxembourg

Bank account:

Bank name: ING Luxembourg
Account Number: LU 36 0141 6441 9360 3010
SWIFT/BIC: CELLLULL
Bank address: 52, route d'Esch L-2965 Luxembourg

Please note that we never send paper invoices. Should you receive one, it is likely to be fraudulent.

Status Points expire at the end of the Registration Period and the Status Counter is then automatically reset to zero. The Registration Period is defined as follows:

- For a Trademark Holder or Trademark Agent who did record one or more Trademarks in the Trademark Clearinghouse during the Early Bird Registration Period, the initial Registration Period will begin when they have recorded the first Trademark in the Trademark Clearinghouse, and will end on the first anniversary of the date the Early Bird Registration Period closed.

- For a Trademark Holder or Trademark Agent who did not record a Trademark during the Early Bird Registration Period, the initial Registration Period will begin when they have recorded the first Trademark in the Trademark Clearinghouse, and ends on the first anniversary of such date.

Thereafter, in either of the above two cases, each subsequent Registration Period shall consist of a 12 month period beginning on the date of termination of the previous Registration Period and ending on the first anniversary of such date.

You can terminate your prepayment account when all trademark records that are linked to the account have expired, have been flagged as 'Invalid' or 'Deactivated' or have been transferred. If the account is terminated, the Trademark Clearinghouse will issue a credit note to the Trademark Holder or Trademark Agent for the funds that are still available on its Prepayment Account and depending on the account rights, the funds will be transferred back to the Trademark Holder’s or Trademark Agent’s bank account. All transaction and potential currency conversion costs will be borne by the Trademark Holder or Trademark Agent. The credit notes will be compliant with the Luxembourg VAT requirements (a.o. make a reference to the initial invoice) and credit the VAT treatment applied on the initial invoice.

Trademark Holders and Agents who register for a Prepayment Account (Advanced Fee structure) automatically receive discounts as they earn Status Points. Status Points are earned by either recording or renewing trademarks. The Status Points determine how much you will pay for a registration at that point in time. The higher your number of Status Points, the lower the price you pay for a registration. See our Fee structure for all details.

In case no sufficient funds are available to renew all selected Trademark Records, Trademark Records are renewed in a serial way until the Prepayment Account no longer has sufficient funds to renew the next Trademark Records.

A Trademark Record will not be accepted for registration once the Prepayment Account does not contain sufficient funds to pay the applicable registration fee. You can refill your account at any time by accessing your profile page.

At any time the Trademark Holder or Trademark Agent can increase the amount of funds in its Prepayment Account with a minimum of USD 1.000 per payment, by wiring the desired amount to the bank account below. Do not forget to add your account UID as a wire reference.

After receipt of the funds, your Prepayment Account will be increased with the received amount and you will be able to download an invoice for this amount.

CHIP S.A.

21, rue Léon Laval
3372 Leudelange
Luxembourg

Bank account:

Bank name: ING Luxembourg
Account Number: LU 36 0141 6441 9360 3010
SWIFT/BIC: CELLLULL
Bank address: 52, route d'Esch L-2965 Luxembourg

You can sign up on our website. After going through the acceptance process, a minimum deposit of 15,000 USD (Gold Account) or 5,000 USD (Silver Account) is required to activate the Prepayment Account.

These funds are immediately and entirely available for recording trademarks. There is no limit on the number of trademarks that may be recorded, as long as the account has sufficient funds. (Only wire transfers are accepted, and the wiring party will bear any applicable or associated transaction and currency conversion costs.). These funds can be used entirely for registering trademark records for the entire duration of the contract. If you decide to terminate your agent contract, the remainder will be reimbursed to your bank account in case you have opted for the minimum initial deposit 15,000 USD but not if you have opted for the minimum initial deposit 5,000 USD.