Advantages of Madrid trademark registration

1. Simple procedures

____Madrid trademark applicants only need to pass in one language (English, French, Spanish) One institution (the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization) submits an application and pays a one-time fee (except for a few countries such as Japan, Brazil, Ghana, etc.), and can apply for trademark registration to all other contracting parties that have joined the Madrid System except its country of origin. application, thereby eliminating the cumbersome procedures of using different languages, submitting different applications and paying separate fees to the trademark authorities of these contracting parties.

____If a single country trademark registration method is adopted, the applicant will have to find trademark agencies in different countries, prepare trademark application materials in different languages, submit multiple trademark applications and pay multiple times. cost.

____When registering a trademark in a single country, different countries have different requirements for trademark application materials. For example, the United States trademark application requires evidence of trademark use. By specifying the United States through Madrid trademark registration, you can avoid the United States trademark. Submit evidence of trademark use during registration.

____When registering a trademark in a single country, some countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iraq, Brazil, Russia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, etc., also require the submission of a trademark agency power of attorney and affidavit The original copy or the original power of attorney certified by commercial or consular certification is not only time-consuming and troublesome, but also costs more application fees. If you designate a country with additional requirements for a power of attorney through Madrid trademark registration, you do not need to prepare additional application materials for the power of attorney.

2. Save costs

____ Facts have proved that trademark registration in Madrid is cheaper than applying to the trademark offices of various countries one by one. The more countries that need to apply for trademark registration, the lower the cost. The advantages are more obvious.

____After submitting the application for international registration, the advantages of simple and low-cost Madrid trademark procedures are also reflected in many follow-up procedures of trademark applications, such as Madrid trademark changes, transfers, renewals, deletions, cancellations, etc. You only need to submit an application and pay the fee once.

___ How much money can you save by registering a trademark in Madrid? Zhizhiyuan Trademark took Southeast Asian countries, American countries and the Middle East countries as examples and helped the applicant calculate the accounts on the spot. The Middle East countries can save nearly 3 Ten thousand yuan. For details, please refer to How much money can I save? Compare Madrid trademark registration and country-by-country trademark registration costs in this article.

3. A wide range of countries that can be registered

____The Madrid Trademark System currently has 106 contracting parties. Almost all developed countries in the world have joined the Madrid Trademark System. Since 2019, Canada, After Brazil and Malaysia successively joined the Madrid trademark system, the coverage of the Madrid trademark has been greatly expanded.

____The seven most developed industrialized countries (G7) headed by the United States, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Italy and Canada, all member countries are Madrid members.

____The Group of Twenty (G20) was established in 1999 at the initiative of the G7 Finance Ministers' Meeting, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, and Italy , Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. Currently, only Argentina, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa are not members of Madrid.

____The BRICS countries (BRICS) include Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. At present, the other four countries except South Africa have all joined the Madrid trademark system.

____The 10 ASEAN countries include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. At present, the remaining 9 countries except Myanmar have all joined the Madrid trademark system.

Disadvantages of Madrid trademark registration

1. There must be a basic trademark

____Madrid trademark registration must be based on domestic trademark registration or domestic trademark application in the country of origin. According to the Madrid Protocol, the application must be based on the preliminary trademark application or registration in the country of origin, and must be based on the same trademark registration in the country. Therefore, there are certain restrictions on the application time and product items applied for.

2. "Center Strike" Principle

____For a trademark registered under the Madrid International Registration Procedure, if the basic registration or application is fully or partially rejected or withdrawn within 5 years from the registration date , cancellation, revocation, abandonment or invalidation, its effect will apply to all designated countries, that is, the trademark can no longer request the protection granted by international registration, regardless of whether the international registration of the trademark has been transferred.

____However, the consequences of this attack are not irreversible. Madrid trademark registrations under the Madrid Protocol can be filed with the designated member of the Protocol within three months from the date of trademark cancellation. The trademark authority of the country must submit an application and pay a certain fee in accordance with the provisions of the member states to convert the international registration of the trademark into a domestic registration of the country. For details, please refer to these two articles: How to Deal with the "Central Strike" Principle of Madrid Trademarks and What to Do If Madrid Trademark Registration is Rejected.

3. There is no unified trademark registration certificate

____The International Bureau will issue an international registration certificate after receiving the international registration application, but its effect is only similar to the domestic acceptance notice , and the trademark authorities of most contracting parties generally no longer issue a trademark registration certificate or approval notice after examination, but only issue a rejection notice to the applicant when the trademark is rejected in whole or in part. Therefore, the applicant can only infer whether its trademark has been approved by the competent authority of the relevant contracting party by calculating the rejection period.

4. There is no unified review and defense procedure

____After the Madrid trademark registration application enters the domestic examination process of each contracting party, if the trademark application is rejected by the trademark office of each contracting party, Or if a trademark objection is filed by others, the International Bureau is not responsible for forwarding the applicant's reexamination application or statement of reasons for defense that needs to be submitted to the trademark office of the contracting party. If the applicant needs to reexamine or defend, he must entrust a trademark agent recognized by the contracting party. Submit and enter the domestic trademark application process of each contracting party.

5. There are still some countries not covered

_So far, the Madrid trademark system has 106 contracting parties, and there are still some countries such as Central America, South America, the Middle East, Africa, Some countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia have not yet joined the Madrid trademark system. Domestic applicants must apply for trademarks simultaneously through the Madrid system and single country applications or other inter-regional intellectual property organizations. You can refer to this article on how to register a trademark in Africa.

Examples of countries that have not yet joined the Madrid Trademark System are as follows:

____Southeast Asia: Myanmar

____South Asia: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal

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____Middle East: Saudi Arabia_, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait

____Central America: Panama, Nicaragua, Jamaica

____South America : Argentina, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Paraguay

____Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania