When it comes to protecting one's intellectual property, there are several international agreements which assist in the facilitation of IP protection across the globe. The obtainment of trademark protection in multiple jurisdictions, in particular, is greatly assisted by the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks of 1891, as well as the Protocol Relating to the same Agreement of 1989.
Combined, they create what is known as the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks, allowing for an often more efficient route of obtaining trademark protection in multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. As such, an "international" application can be filed designating any/all Madrid member states, and the subsequent registrations will be effective individually in each designated state as if it had been filed through the national route.
Any Member States of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property may accede to and join the Madrid Agreement and/or Protocol, with states being able to adhere to either just one, or both, of the treaties.
Whilst both the Agreement and the Protocol are complementary of one another and are parallel in nature, they operate as separate, independent treaties and as such, possess several inherent differences. Applications can therefore differ in requirements, expected time limits, and fees, for example, depending on whether an application was filed under the Madrid Agreement, or the Madrid Protocol.
The Agreement itself, for instance, preceded the Protocol by over a hundred years, intending to set the foundations for a more efficient and simpler route of obtaining international trademark protection than having to file in multiple jurisdictions separately.
The Protocol, on the other hand, was created aiming to add a higher level of flexibility to the Madrid System, with the adjustments allowing for the System to be compatible with the national legislation of more countries and intergovernmental organizations who were previously unable to accede to the Agreement based on their domestic laws. Moreover, the Agreement only allowed for the accession of individual states, whilst the Protocol opened up the opportunity for accession in relation to intergovernmental organizations in addition to independent countries.
The two treaties also present multiple differences when it comes to the filing and maintenance of trademark rights. The Agreement, for example, required an international application to be filed based upon a home country registration. The Protocol, however, introduced the possibility for an international registration to be based on either a national, or "basic", trademark application, or upon a basic trademark registration with the trademark office of a Contracting Party to the Protocol.
The Agreement further required an international application to be filed in an office of origin in a country in which the applicant has “a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment.”, with applicants only able to file in their country of domicile if they had no such commercial establishment. Once introduced, however, the Protocol allowed for applicants to choose an office of origin based on either commercial establishment or domicile.
At the time of introduction, the Madrid Agreement obligated applications to solely be filed in the French language, however once the Protocol was introduced, applicants were also permitted to file applications in the English language under the Madrid System. In 2004, Spanish was introduced as an additional language to the System, thus meaning applicants may file international applications in any of the three operational languages of the Madrid System regardless of whether an application is filed under the Agreement or Protocol. Individual offices of origin, however, may enforce restrictions as to which of the three languages are permitted for use.
The procedure for the payment of fees also differs between the two treaties. The Agreement, for example, obliged applicants to pay a fixed fee for each designated Contracting Party, whilst the introduction of the Protocol meant that applicants could either pay via fixed fee, or Madrid Contracting States could opt for an individual fee system in which the state may charge the same fees for international applications as they would had the application been national in nature.
Concerning trademark refusal periods, the Agreement allows for a total of 12 months for such a period, whilst the later introduced Protocol brought in a period of 18 months for refusal which also has the possibility of being extended. However, if the country of origin and designated country are both parties to the Madrid Agreement and Protocol, according to article 9sexies of the Protocol, a 12 month period for the issuance of provisional refusal is applicable.
Finally, the trademark validity period under the Agreement comprised a total of 20 years, whereas the Protocol introduced a new period of 10 years. Despite the considerable shortening of the time period, this provided the opportunity for the elimination of unused or unmaintained trademarks from the International Register.
Despite varying in a multitude of ways, both the Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol have proved to be an asset to the obtainment of trademark rights internationally. Covering 130 countries with 114 members, the Madrid Union encompasses just how useful global cooperation and centralized IP systems can be.