I. Relevant provisions of madrid agreement concerning the international registration of marks and madrid agreement concerning the international registration of marks The Madrid Agreement 1892 was signed in Madrid, Spain, on April 4th 14 and came into force on April 4th 1892. It has a history of 100 years, and the language required by the agreement is French. 1signed by madrid agreement concerning the international registration of marks in Madrid on June 27th, 989. It is stipulated that the country designated by the applicant can choose to use English or French when it contains at least one pure protocol member. At present, 80 countries and national organizations have joined the Madrid international trademark registration system. The main advantages of Madrid registration are: 1. The procedure is relatively simple (no agent is needed). If Madrid international registration is adopted, the trademark applicant can obtain trademark protection in multiple countries at the same time by submitting an application to the competent authority, and the procedure is relatively simple, compared with the tedious procedure of registration in one country and one country (the registration of one country is generally entrusted to some firms with foreign-related experience, which is not complicated for the applicant). 2. Relatively low cost (in the case of successful registration) The cost of international registration of a trademark in Madrid includes three parts: first, the basic registration fee, that is, the fee of the designated country; Third, the cost of domestic trademark authorities; In addition, if you entrust an agent to handle it, you need to pay a certain agency fee. An applicant for international registration may specify one or more member States in the application to request the protection of its trademark. No matter whether one member country or all member countries are designated, the applicant for international registration of trademarks only needs to pay a basic registration fee. Therefore, the more countries designated, the more cost-effective. 3. It takes about six months (compared with some countries) from the date when an applicant submits an application for international registration of a trademark to the Trademark Office to the time when he obtains the certificate of international registration of a trademark issued by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which indicates the international registration number and date of the trademark. Of course, the international registration certificate of a trademark only shows that the International Bureau has received an application for international registration. From the date of international registration, if the designated country fails to send a notice of rejection to the International Bureau within the prescribed time limit (65,438+02 months as stipulated in the agreement and 65,438+08 months as stipulated in the agreement), the trademark will be automatically protected in the designated country (if the country applies for registration of the trademark one by one, it will take different time to obtain the exclusive right to use the trademark, such as half a year in France, Myanmar, Denmark and Britain). Applying for international trademarks through Madrid system has its advantages, which can save time and cost in the case of successful application, and is more suitable for batch national applications. This application is more suitable for enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises whose products are mainly put into Europe to protect their own brands. However, the Madrid registration system also has a one-sided defect of 1, which is not conducive to expanding the protection of the Madrid system. When applying for a trademark, the designated goods must be completely consistent with the trademark of the country of origin, and the choice of goods has great limitations, which is not conducive to brand protection and the diversified development of enterprises overseas. 2. Priority According to the Paris Convention, any enterprise of a member country of the Paris Convention can enjoy priority if it applies for trademark registration in other countries within six months after applying for a trademark in its place of origin, but it takes about six months for the China Trademark Office to issue an acceptance notice, so many large enterprises are reluctant to choose Madrid for fear of being squatted. 3. You can't make an effective inquiry to apply for a trademark through the Madrid registration system. Only the applied trademarks can be found in the Madrid system, not in the designated countries. The inquiry results cannot be effective and comprehensive, so the applicant is completely unaware of the risks that may be faced in the later period. To this end, the applicant is accused of infringement from time to time. 4. Limited scope of registration Although the Madrid system has 80 member countries, mainly in Europe, most countries including Canada and ASEAN (only Singapore has joined the Madrid system) are not among them. Second, a single country has registered about 200 existing sovereign countries, independent legal system areas and national organizations in the world. As long as countries or regions have relevant regulations on trademarks, they can protect trademarks by registering them one by one. The advantages of single country registration are: 1. Flexible registration applications in most countries in the world do not need the registration basis of origin, and enterprises are more free to apply for what kind of trademarks and specify what kind of goods or services they want. Therefore, enterprises can make trademarks enter overseas markets before commodities and expand the protection of brands. 2. The risk is relatively small. If a trademark is registered in a single country, it will generally be inquired in advance in that country. Applicants can clearly know whether their trademarks have been registered in that country, what will be the result of trademark application, and whether the use of trademarks in that country will involve infringement. 3. It is convenient for the registration of a single country to defend rights, generally through the intellectual property office or law firm of that country. After successful registration, you can not only obtain the official registration certificate issued by the country, but also issue special certificates in time when encountering infringement problems to avoid the expansion of losses. In addition, the firm will also pay attention to this trademark, and can find and deal with other people's infringement or malicious registration in time. 4. In which country to apply for a trademark with relatively stable rights, it will be governed by China's trademark-related laws, and the exclusive right to use a trademark will remain stable within the validity period, unless the obligee seriously violates the trademark law of that country. In addition, when the registered trademark is about to expire, the agency will generally remind it to renew it, which cannot be achieved through Madrid registration. 5. The scope of registration is extensive. About 200 countries and regions around the world can register one by one, so I won't go into details here. Compared with applying for trademark registration through Madrid system, single country registration will be more flexible and safe, and it will also be more effective for later attention. It is more suitable for large enterprises or enterprises with high requirements for rights protection, or enterprises that are not registered in the country of origin but urgently need to use trademarks overseas. Correspondingly, single country registration also has some disadvantages, mainly in: 1. The cost is relatively high. In the case of batch registration, the registration fee through Madrid system is more than half lower than that through country-by-country registration (of course, the service is different). In a few countries, the cost of notarization is really high. For example, the notarization procedure in the United Arab Emirates needs 8500 RMB, but in most countries, the cost does not exceed 1000 RMB. 2. Some countries are time-consuming. 3. Generally, it takes no more than 18 months to register through the Madrid system, and it takes much longer to register through a single country. For example, it takes about 4 years to register in India, 3 years to register in Brazil and 3 years to register in the Philippines. However, in some countries, the registration certificate can be obtained within one year after applying for registration, such as Switzerland, Singapore, Laos, Myanmar, Germany, France and so on. To sum up, Madrid registration and single country registration have their own advantages and disadvantages, and applicants should make a choice after considering their own situation and various risks.