Defining Madrid protocol
The Madrid Protocol can be defined as an international system dedicated to acquire protection of trademark for those countries and regions who are using a single application. Safeguard (an international registration) can only be acquired for regions and countries that have united in the system as member countries, as listed below. Before going further, it is vital to carry out the process of trademark online registration in India to safeguard your business and to get the benefits from it.
An international treaty that enables the trademark owner to seek registration in any of the listed countries is known as the Madrid protocol. To put it simply, the Madrid Protocol is an international treaty made for simplifying the international trademark registration process for all which also includes those having trademark online registration in India.
An international registration offers numerous rights governed centrally by the WIPO (world intellectual property organization) in Switzerland.
Process for the international trademark registration
The Madrid protocol system enables you to acquire and maintain safeguard for your brand worldwide by offering a user-friendly, cost-effective, and expeditious set of processes for central submission of trademark applications and central management of trademark registrations with effects all over the countries.
The process of international trademark registration involves the three simple steps as given below;
Single submission to seek safeguard in different territories
Under the Madrid Protocol, international registrations’ applications must be submitted to the applicant’s home country’s trademark office. They should present the prior-submitted home country application or registration upon that the international application based. For instance, for international trademark registration in India, the applicant is obliged to register in India. First, based on the Indian trademark, an international application has to be submitted online at the IP website of India, delegating some or all of the Madrid Union members where you want your market to be safeguarded. The application can be submitted in either French, English or Spanish.
Notifying the designated countries
Once the above-mentioned step is done, the particulars of international registration are notified by the WIPO to each of the Madrid Union’s designated members. Then, the members will have to decide within stipulated time limits whether they can allocate protection to your mark in their territories or not.
Trademark registration
In case any designated member does not find any objection within 18 months of the period from the notification’s date of the international registration to it. The mark under international registration is considered protected within that member’s territory as if the same has been registered directly with the IP office of that member.
Once the trademark is allocated in designated countries, the trademark owner only requires to submit a single request with WIPO to renew the international registration when the need arises, which would take place in all the designated member countries.
Likewise, satisfying other formalities like recording assignments, securities, licenses, mergers and changes of address or names and so forth. Only needs a single request for each of them. It also simplifies managing and maintaining trademarks in different countries and results in cost-savings.
List of member countries under the Madrid protocol
WIPO (world intellectual property organization) offers a cost-effective single application system for acquiring and maintaining trademark registration in almost 122 countries of the world. Currently, the Madrid protocol has 106 members, covering 122 countries.
International trademark registration fees.
Under the Madrid protocol, the basic fees, a complimentary fee for each contracting party, and supplementary fees for every class of goods and services over 3. For several contracting parties, the complementary fee is substituted by the individual fee. To obtain confirmation whether or not a contracting party has to pay the individual fee.
International trademark registration under Madrid protocol attracts fee in India which begin from Rs. 35000 but might differ as per the T&Cs of each application.
If you own an Indian company, trust, society, firm, sole proprietor or entrepreneur, you can be beneficiary of trademark registration in India via Madrid protocol to safeguard your brand in many countries around the globe by following the easy and cost-effective process of submitting your trademark applications and managing your trademark registration abroad.
