Madrid Protocol

"Madrid Agreement" redirects here. For other uses, see Madrid Agreement (disambiguation).

For the Madrid Protocol relating to mining in the Antarctic, see Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. For the great-power agreement over the Sulu Archipelago, see Madrid Protocol of 1885.

The Madrid System, also known as the Madrid Protocol[1] or simply Madrid, is the primary international system for facilitating the registration of trademarks in multiple jurisdictions around the world. It was established pursuant to the multilateral treaties Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks of 1891 and the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement (1989), which has been the sole governing treaty since 2016.[2]

The Madrid System provides a centrally administered system for obtaining multiple trademark registrations in separate jurisdictions; it does not create a single unified registration across different jurisdictions, as in the case of the European Union trademark system.[3] Rather, applicants file a single international trademark application and pay one set of fees to apply for protection in any or all countries that are members of the system; each country has discretion to grant the application. Once the trademark authority of a designated country grants protection, the mark is protected in that jurisdiction just as if that office had registered it.[1]

The Madrid System is administered by the International Bureau of the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland. As of February 2023, the Madrid System consists of 114 members covering 130 countries;[4] known collectively as the Madrid Union, they represent more than 80% of world trade.[4]

  1. ^ a b "Madrid Protocol". uspto.gov. United States: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  2. ^ World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), ed. (2021). Guide to the International Registration of Marks under the Madrid Protocol. WIPO publication. Geneva, Switzerland: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). ISBN 978-92-805-3250-0.
  3. ^ Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 of 26 February 2009 on the Community trade mark (Official Journal No. L78, 24.3.2009, p.1)
  4. ^ a b "Members of the Madrid Union". www.wipo.int. Retrieved 6 March 2023.