The main purpose of the paper is comparing different trademark protection system, focusing on European jurisdictions and the relevant legislations. The comparison focuses on the Romanian jurisdiction, as representative for the attributive system, and the Italian jurisdiction, which the doctrine considers representative for the declarative system. For each of them, the relevance of both use and registration are presented in terms of acquiring, consolidating or loosing protection. By presenting the first to use and first to file systems, the article aims to compare them by outlining the advantages and disadvantages of both systems, and also by showing what they have in common in terms of legal consequences. The article also describes the approach of international conventions with respect to trademark protection system, focusing on the legislation of the European Union, which is also directly relevant to both jurisdictions chosen to outline the two systems. Finally, brief commentaries regarding the notion of "use" are made, along with conclusion regarding the analyzed trademark protections systems.