INTERNATIONAL TRADEMARK REGISTRATION

Register and manage your trademark in the territories of the 114 member countries of the Madrid System in 2024.

International Trademark Registration
International Trademark Registration

Save time and money by filing one application, rather than a bundle of national applications; no need to pay for translations or hire a representative in each country. With over 1.3 million trademarks registered, the Madrid System is the top choice for international trademark registration among export-oriented brand owners.

Before filing an international application, you should search to find out if identical or similar marks already exist in your target markets.

Once your trademark is registered, you can easily manage it through one centralized system.

Manage your brand portfolio through a centralized system, and easily expand protection into new markets.

What Is A Trademark?

What Is A Trademark?

A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises. Trademarks are protected by intellectual property rights. You should consider registering your mark in any countries or jurisdictions where you offer your products or services under that mark.

As well as in those countries/jurisdictions where you intend to use the mark for your products or services in the future.

Use of a mark is not a prerequisite for filing an application in most countries; however, some countries do have use requirements.

How Can I Protect My Trademark?

How Can I Protect My Trademark?

At the national/regional level, trademark protection can be obtained through registration, by filing an application for registration with the national/regional trademark office and paying the required fees. At the international level, you have two options: either you can file a trademark application with the trademark office of each country in which you are seeking protection, or you can use Madrid System.

In principle, a trademark registration will confer an exclusive right to the use of the registered trademark. This implies that the trademark can be exclusively used by its owner, or licensed to another party for use in return for payment.

Registration provides legal certainty and reinforces the position of the right holder, for example, in case of litigation. The U.S. trademark registration will not protect your trademark in a foreign country. Trademarks are territorial and must be filed in each country where protection is sought.

However, if you are a qualified owner of trademark application pending before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), or of a registration issued by the USPTO, you may seek registration in any of the countries that have joined the Madrid Protocol by filing a single application, called an "international application," with the International Bureau of the World Property Intellectual Organization (WIPO), through the USPTO.

As of April 2014, U.S. applicants can concurrently seek protection in up to 92 countries. Make sure to consider registering transliterations (representations of words in the corresponding characters of another alphabet) when making trademark decisions.

For example, foreign entities may trademark the name of your company written in their alphabet to make a transliteration of you trademark that they then trademark for themselves.

What Kinds Of Trademark Can Be Registered?

What Kinds Of Trademark Can Be Registered?

A word or a combination of words, letters, and numerals can perfectly constitute a trademark. But trademarks may also consist of drawings, symbols, three-dimensional features such as the shape and packaging of goods, non-visible signs such as sounds or fragrances, or color shades used as distinguishing features – the possibilities are almost limitless.

The term of trademark registration can vary, but is usually ten years. It can be renewed indefinitely on payment of additional fees. Trademark rights are private rights and protection is enforced through court orders.

Several international agreements make it possible to file a single application to register a mark in more than one country. For example, a registration with the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property offers trademark protection in the Benelux territory (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands).

A European Union Trade Mark (EUTM) (formerly Community Trade Mark) registration protects a trademark in all the member states of the European Union (EU). The Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol make it possible to file an application for an International Registration, which will offer a trademark protection in any of the countries the applicant designates that are party to either or both of those treaties.

Filing with the African Intellectual Property Organization or the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization protects a trademark in all the member states of that organization.

What Is A European Union Trade Mark?

What Is A European Union Trade Mark?

The EUTM system offers trademark owners a unified system of protection throughout the EU with the filing of a single application. If successful, this one application results in an EUTM registration, which is recognized in all the EU member states. As new member states are added to the EU, the coverage of existing EUTMs automatically expands, without any action or payment required of the EUTM owner.

The protection of an extended EUTM in a new member state, however, dates from the admission date of the member state rather than the filing date of the EUTM. The initial registration period is ten years from the date of filing of the EUTM application.

The registering authority is the European Union Intellectual Property Office (formerly Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market), in Alicante, Spain. An EUTM registration may be beneficial for several reasons:

  • (1) it is a time-saving and cost-effective procedure;

  • (2) having to maintain just a single trademark registration results in administrative efficiencies; and, perhaps most important;

  • (3) genuine use in one EU member state may be sufficient to protect an EUTM in all member states from cancellation on the ground of non-use.

On the other hand, there is a risk that if a ground for rejection applies in just one of the member states, the mark cannot be registered as an EUTM, although conversion to national applications is possible in some cases.

What Is The Madrid Protocol?

What Is The Madrid Protocol?

The Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks is one of two treaties comprising the Madrid System for international registration of trademarks. The protocol is a filing treaty and not a substantive harmonization treaty. It provides a cost-effective and efficient way for trademark holders to ensure protection for their marks in multiple countries through the filing of one application with a single office, in one language, with one set of fees, in one currency.

Moreover, no local agent is needed to file the application. While an International Registration may be issued, it remains the right of each country or contracting party designated for protection to determine whether or not protection for a mark may be granted.

Once the trademark office in a designated country grants protection, the mark is protected in that country just as if that office had registered it. The Madrid Protocol also simplifies the subsequent management of the mark, since a simple, single procedural step serves to record subsequent changes in ownership or in the name or address of the holder with World Intellectual Property Organization's International Bureau.

The International Bureau administers the Madrid System and coordinates the transmittal of requests for protection, renewals and other relevant documentation to all members. The Madrid system for the international registration of trademarks provides a single procedure for the registration of a mark in several territories.

In a nutshell, you benefit from one application, in one language, paid in one currency.

What Is The Madrid System?

What Is The Madrid System?

The Madrid System is a system for the international registration of marks. It provides a means to seek protection for a trademark simultaneously in a large number of jurisdictions. The system is governed by two separate international treaties, the Madrid Agreement (Agreement) and the Madrid Protocol (Protocol).

Under the Agreement, nationals of any signatory may secure protection of their trademark, registered in the country of origin, in all other states that are parties to the Agreement. Under the Protocol, nationals of any signatory may secure protection in countries and jurisdictions that are contracting parties to the Protocol based on a pending application or registration in the country or jurisdiction of origin.

Both the Agreement and the Protocol are administered by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

How The Madrid System Works?

How The Madrid System Works?

With over 1.3 million trademarks registered, the Madrid System is the top choice for international trademark registration among export-oriented brand owners. The Madrid System is the one-stop solution for trademark holders to obtain and maintain protection in multiple markets. Whether you’re a small start-up or a large multinational exporter, the Madrid System can help you manage your brand efficiently.

The Madrid System supports you throughout the lifecycle of your trademark, from application through to renewal. Register and manage your trademark in the territories of the Madrid System’s 98 members, representing 114 countries and over 80% of world trade.

File a single application in one language, and pay one set of fees to apply for trademark protection in multiple territories.

Current members of the Madrid Union have duties as both an Office of Origin and an Office of a designated Contracting Party.

Trademarks Intellectual Property

Trademarks Intellectual Property

Trademark registration is territorial in nature. Separate applications need to be filed in each country where you wish to register your trademark. If you plan to sell and market internationally, it is essential to register your trademarks in those countries. Usually, the party who first registers a mark owns it.

Therefore, it is significant to register your trademarks in each country your company considers to be a potential and key market. A national trademark registration stops at the border and does not afford rights to the owner of the trademark outside the country in which it is registered.

Most companies expanding into other countries often realize the value of registering their trademarks abroad once it is too late, that is, once they are faced with counterfeiters/imitators or once they are accused of infringing the rights of others.

The risks of doing so are very high and the consequences may be extremely costly and detrimental to a company’s entire business and export strategy. It can be a severe financial liability to invest in a brand, promote it in the local market, then find that the brand cannot be registered and used internationally and have to finally abandon that investment.

Application through your National or Regional IP Office (Office of origin) Before you can file an international application, you need to have already registered, or have filed an application, in your “home” IP office.

The registration or application is known as the basic mark. If you wish to obtain registration in a country which is not a member of the Madrid protocol, separate national trademark application has to be filed directly in the respective country.

How To Start International Trademark Registration

How To Start International Trademark Registration

The processes of international trademark registration are relatively complex in nature, you will need legal assistance from experts with extensive experience in international trademark registration. Whether you are registering your trademark only in the U.S., or also internationally, it's important to get the help of an intellectual property attorney.

Without an attorney, you can find yourself paying a lot of money, only to have your trademark application rejected. But you don't have to waste time with hotel reservations, tiring trips, visits to various tax agencies or dealing with all the paperwork.

Access the world's largest P2P Offshore Marketplace and find the best Offshore Service Providers (OSPs) to help you obtain an international trademark registration through the Madrid System:

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