20 Mar Brazil accedes to the Madrid Agreement
2019 is an interesting year for the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). After Canada, Brazil has now joined the Madrid Agreement.
The Madrid system simplifies the process of obtaining trademark protection in 122 Member States. The international system for trademark registration makes it possible to apply for trademark protection for 1 or more Member States with only one application. As a result, protection should not always be sought in each country individually. This is both cost-saving and time-saving
Once the Madrid Agreement enters into force in Brazil, it will be possible to recognize Brazil as a designated country for international registration. Brazil belongs to the 10 biggest economies in the world and is thus an important addition to the Madrid Agreement.
In order to join the Madrid System there need to be some changes made to the Trademark Law in the country concerned. These modifications can have important effects for brand holders. For example, Canada has adopted, as a result of them joining the Madrid System, the Nice Classification. And thus Canada has reduced the duration of trademark protection from 15 years to 10 years.
Mexico has also made some changes. As of now Mexico has introduced the Statement of Use-obligation. As a result of all these modifications, it is very important for brand holders to still check if their rights have changed.
The latest addition to the Agreement is Malaysia. On the 27th December 2019 the Madrid Agreement will enter into force. The amount of countries that accede to the international system on the registration of trademarks keeps growing and that is a good thing.
© 2019, Zoe De Kempeneer for IP Hills