Many people want to expand their commercial market and consider an international trademark. The Madrid Protocol, composed of two separate treaties, creates an international filing system for registering trademarks. Through one centralized trademark office location, owners of a mark can extend their application to other countries. The system simplifies trademark administration and management using one local office, one language, and one fee payment in one currency. The Madrid System takes an application in your base country and "extends" the application to other signatory countries.
Each request for a mark you make is a separate trademark application in each nation. The Trademark authority reviews the application from a fresh perspective using that country's procedures and requirements. Local legal counsel with Power of Attorney must respond to an opposition or objection rather than the base country attorney.
Since WIPO applications are typically more expensive for most users, we recommend registering country by country. If you are considering a large bulk application with many countries, this choice may be better for you.
The Madrid International Trademark System
This centralized management system simplifies the registration of a trademark. One application in one language generates a bundle of applications in multiple languages through independent trademark offices covering almost 80% of trade around the world. The Madrid Union currently has 112 members, covering 128 countries4 and includes the European Union (EU), and African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI)