International Trade Mark Application - Madrid Protocol

The Madrid registration system is essentially an administrative procedure. Although an applicant must file a single application at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva, the resulting registration gives a bundle of national rights in the countries, or regions such as the EU, designated in the registration. 

A list of the current participating countries is found via the Related Link on this page.

Use of the international registration system is restricted to the following:

Nationals (individuals or companies) of participating countries

Companies having a real and effective business in one of the participating countries.

An international application must be based on an earlier national application or registration (the so-called home application/registration). In some instances, a home application is filed specifically for the purpose of supporting an International registration. If the home application/registration fails, so automatically does the International application although the International application can then be converted into independent national applications retaining the original filing date.

An application for International registration is filed at WIPO and once it has undergone a formalities examination, it is published in the WIPO Gazette. If one wants to oppose an application, one can either attack the national application/registration on which the international application is based, or one can file an opposition in those designated countries in which one has an earlier right.

Once published, the application is subject to examination by the national trade mark offices in the designated countries and then proceeds in the same manner as national applications separately in those countries. If a national trade mark office raises objections which cannot be overcome, the  registration will be rejected in that country.

The resulting registration may thus extend to only some of the original designated countries, and the range of goods and/or services covered in each country may vary as a result of national examination procedures.

An advantage of this system is that one can designate further participating countries subsequent to the filing of the international application and so extend the geographical scope of protection as more countries sign-up to the Protocol.

Once having received details relevant to the home application/registration, all we will require is an indication of the countries to be covered by the International registration