Greece’s largest telecommunications operator has taken a major step toward rebranding under its German parent’s global identity, but the move is raising questions after the company approved new corporate names before securing trademark protection for them.
At its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, shareholders of OTE approved amendments to the company’s articles of association that expand its official trade names as part of a broader alignment with the international Telekom brand of its majority owner, Deutsche Telekom.
The approved changes add “Hellenic Telekom,” “Telekom Greece,” and their Greek-language equivalents to OTE’s existing trade names, which include OTE and Cosmote. The decision allows the company to use the new names across its commercial and business activities as it prepares for a wider corporate transformation.
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Yet the approval comes before the apparent registration of the new brand names as trademarks, according to searches of publicly available records maintained by Greece’s Ministry of Development and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
The absence of trademark registrations has prompted questions about the sequencing of the rebranding effort and whether the company has moved ahead with corporate approvals before securing legal protection for the names. Intellectual-property specialists note that delays in trademark filings can create risks if third parties seek rights to identical or similar marks before the registration process is completed.
While no such challenges have emerged so far, the situation highlights a potentially unusual aspect of a rebranding project that is expected to reshape one of Greece’s most recognizable corporate brands.
Barring unforeseen complications, OTE’s transition to the Telekom identity is expected to be completed by the autumn, after a series of organizational and commercial changes are implemented. According to the company’s plans, the Germanos retail chain—one of Greece’s largest electronics and telecommunications store networks—will retain its existing name.
Industry sources also say that further branding changes could follow in the coming months for Cosmote TV, the group’s pay-television platform, although the company has not formally announced any such move.
Despite outlining the rebranding strategy, OTE management provided no details during the shareholder meeting regarding the overall cost of the transition. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kostas Nebis did not disclose the expected investment required for the overhaul, leaving investors without clarity on the financial scale of the project.
