Do I need to renew my trademark, and what if I forget?

Yes, trademark registrations in Malta under the Trademarks Act, Chapter 416 of the Laws of Malta, are granted for an initial period of ten years from the date of registration, after which they must be actively renewed to continue in force, and this renewal process can generally be repeated indefinitely for further ten-year periods, provided the appropriate renewal application and fee are submitted to the Industrial Property Registrations Directorate (IPRD) before the registration lapses. If you miss the actual renewal deadline, Malta generally provides a grace period during which you can still renew the registration, typically subject to an additional late renewal fee, but if this grace period is also allowed to pass without renewal, your trademark registration would ultimately lapse entirely, meaning you would lose your exclusive registered rights and could potentially need to file an entirely new application to re-establish protection, which would also mean losing your original priority date and potentially facing new conflicts from marks registered by others in the intervening period. Given how significant losing your registered protection could be for your business, and given that renewal deadlines can be easy to overlook over a ten-year period, it would be worth setting up a reliable reminder system well in advance of your renewal date, or engaging a trademark agent or lawyer to formally monitor and manage your renewal deadlines on an ongoing basis.