The most basic of all IP related activities to be done when thinking to / starting to do business with a certain country or territory is to file the trademark for registration.
Having the trademark registered will allow you to stop others from illegal utilization of your trademark. Also, having the trademark registered will avoid that other register it and then challenge oppose you, the real owner (trademark squatters).
When planning to file the trademark in several countries the simplest and cost-effective way is to utilize the international trademark also known as Madrid system.
The Madrid system allows the applicant of a trademark in any of the counties of the Madrid territories to extend it in any other country by filing an international application.
Technically the international trademark is not a trademark, it is only a filing system of trademarks in the seal countries. However, it is good enough to know that with Madrid System is possible to obtain trademark protection at good price.
Despite the members of the Madrid Union are currently numerous we still have to count and highlight a few territories that are not part of the system. For these territories only National trademark is available and we (HFG) can you help you register your trademarks in any of these territories.
__Bangladesh;
__Hong-Kong SAR;
__Macau SAR;
__Myanmar;
__Nepal;
__Papua New Guinea;
__Republic of China, Taiwan;
The trademark in China (People's Republic of China) does not cover Hong-Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and the Republic of China, Taiwan. Therefore, even if you have already filed/registered a trademark in China you might need to proceed to a new filing to cover these territories.
Myanmar does not have yet a proper trademark system in place. However, it is possible to file an application for reserving the right to trademark registration when the system will be in place (hopefully soon).
Lastly, we wish to remind that India and Malaysia are not part of Madrid system since they joined in recent years.
Trademark Searches in non-Madrid territories
Needleless to say that Madrid Monitor will not be as useful tool to perform searches in non-Madrid countries. Differently, TM View offers the opportunity to inspect also the trademark registers of these territories.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
