The OBI API for trademark search
OBI records are not on Signa yet. EU trademarks from EUIPO and WIPO Madrid designations covering Greece are searchable today. Join the waitlist to hear when OBI ships on Signa.
What is OBI?
Trademark administration in Greece sits in an unusual place compared to most EU member states. Historically, OBI — the Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation (Οργανισμός Βιομηχανικής Ιδιοκτησίας), founded under Law 1733/1987 and operational since 1 January 1988 — was responsible for patents, utility models, and industrial designs, while the national trademark register was administered by the General Secretariat of Commerce (Γενική Γραμματεία Εμπορίου) within the Ministry of Development. That split ended with Law 4796/2021, which transferred the Trademark Office to OBI; the move was practically completed in May 2022. OBI is now the sole competent authority for the registration of trademarks in Greece and maintains the National Trademark Register from its headquarters at Varvaki & Momferatou Street in Athens.
Greek substantive trademark law was rewritten by Law 4679/2020, which transposed the EU Trademark Directive (2015/2436) into Greek law. The current regime introduced full opposition examination on absolute and relative grounds before the Trademark Committee, a three-month opposition window measured from publication of the application on OBI's website, and modernized provisions for non-traditional marks, certification marks, and revocation actions. Annual filing volumes at OBI hit roughly 7,000 applications in 2024 — a 15-year record — concentrated in technology (class 9), retail (class 35), and R&D/design services (class 42). Greece is also a Madrid Protocol member, so international registrations designating GR are routed through WIPO and coexist with the direct OBI national filings. Because Greece is an EU member state, an EU trademark filed at EUIPO automatically covers Greece without any separate OBI step, and most multi-country filers default to EUTM.
OBI exposes the Greek register through a public web search tool on obi.gr, searchable by word element, holder, registration number, class, status, and date, and through EUIPO's TMview aggregator, which mirrors the Greek collection alongside every other EU national office. There is no public OBI REST API and no published bulk-data feed comparable to DPMAconnectPlus or Data INPI. Programmatic consumers either scrape the OBI search UI, lift records out of TMview, or piece together filings from publication notices. The OBI register is not on Signa yet. Greek marks reach Signa today through WIPO Madrid designations, and EU trademarks from EUIPO, which cover Greece, are searchable today. Join the waitlist to hear when the OBI register is added.
Unique features
- Single-authority consolidation as of 2022 — Law 4796/2021 transferred the Trademark Office from the General Secretariat of Commerce (GGE) to OBI, making OBI the sole competent authority for Greek trademark registration (it previously only handled patents and designs)
- Greek-script register with mixed Latin transliteration. Mark text arrives in Greek (Ελληνικά), in Latin, or in both, so a search tool has to match Greek script and romanized forms of the same mark
- Law 4679/2020 examination regime — full opposition on absolute and relative grounds before the Trademark Committee, with a three-month opposition window measured from publication of the application on OBI's website
- Madrid Protocol member — Greece can be designated through WIPO as an alternative to a direct OBI filing; Madrid GR designations come through the WIPO feed, direct national filings live in OBI
- EU member state — a single EU trademark filed at EUIPO covers Greece automatically; OBI national filings make sense for Greece-only protection, earlier Greek seniority dates, or cases where EU-wide prior rights would block a wider EUTM
- Maritime and shipping brand use case — Greece operates one of the world's largest merchant fleets, so OBI is a frequent route for shipping, port-services, and marine-insurance brands needing local Greek protection alongside their EUTM portfolio
- Geographical indication overlap — products like ouzo and tsipouro are protected as Greek geographical origins under separate EU GI law, which creates absolute-grounds refusals at OBI for trademark applications using those names outside the GI proprietorship
- No public OBI API. OBI exposes the register through a free web search at obi.gr and through EUIPO's TMview aggregator, so programmatic access means scraping or working through TMview
OBI API — Frequently asked questions
Everything developers ask before integrating OBI data
Need something else? See our documentation
OBI API basics
Coverage & Greek trademark quirks
Need something else? See our documentation
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