For many clients protection of their trade marks in Australia is sufficient as their trading in goods and services associated with that trade mark does not go beyond the borders of Australia.
However, when your customer base stretches beyond Australia one obvious question is how to protect your trade mark in other countries. Often the answer is via an International Trade Mark Registration under the “Madrid Protocol”.
In essence the Madrid Protocol is a system for making an application for an International Trade Mark Registration and “designating” the country or countries of interest for the registration of that mark. We find that the Madrid Protocol system is very often the most economic way of achieving trade mark registration in overseas countries as it enables us to initiate and manage the application from Australia. The need for “local” (ie foreign country) legal representation is normally limited to cases where adverse examination reports are issued.
Currently there are 91 member countries of the Madrid Protocol system. These include all of Europe (either as individual countries or as a single European Community designation), the USA, New Zealand and several countries in Asia including Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and India.
The only pre-requisite for being able to access the Madrid Protocol system is having an Australian registered (or pending) trade mark. This mark forms the base for an International application via the Madrid Protocol system.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss the possibility of seeking protection of your trade marks outside of Australia via this Madrid Protocol system for the registration of International Trade Marks.