International Trademarks
& Madrid Protocol

The Madrid Protocol is an international treaty that lets you file one trademark application to seek protection in up to 131 member countries through a single procedure administered by WIPO. Your home country trademark office (the USPTO for US-based applicants) certifies your basic mark and forwards the application to WIPO. WIPO then sends the application to each designated country's trademark office for examination under that country's laws. Each country can grant or refuse protection independently.

Yes. The Madrid Protocol requires a basic application or registration in your home country before you can file internationally. For US-based applicants, that means a pending or registered trademark with the USPTO. The international application must use the same mark and cover the same or narrower scope of goods and services as the basic mark. If you do not yet have a US trademark, the domestic registration is the first step before any international filing strategy makes sense.

The Madrid Protocol currently has 131 member countries covering roughly 80% of global GDP. You can designate any combination of these countries in a single international application. Major markets including the European Union (covering 27 EU member states in one designation), United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, and India are all members. The complete member list is maintained by WIPO and updated as new countries join the treaty.

Total cost has three components: the flat legal fee for the SGL tier you select, the USPTO certification fee per class, and WIPO plus per-country government fees that vary by jurisdiction. The WIPO basic fee is currently 653 Swiss francs for a black-and-white mark. Individual designation fees range from approximately $100 to $850 per country. A typical 6-country, 1-class filing runs $4,000 to $6,000 in government fees alone on top of the SGL legal fee. The strategy call confirms exact government-fee pass-through before any filing.

For the first five years after international registration, your Madrid registration depends on your basic US mark. If your USPTO application is refused, withdrawn, or canceled during that window, your entire international registration falls in every designated country at once. This is called a central attack. After five years, the international registration becomes independent of the basic mark and survives any later attack on the US registration. SGL monitors central-attack risk throughout the five-year dependency period for Madrid Global Portfolio clients.

Yes. The Madrid Protocol allows subsequent designations at any time after your initial international registration is granted. You pay WIPO and government fees for the newly designated countries plus the legal coordination fee. This makes phased international expansion practical: file in your priority markets first, then add countries as your business grows into them. The Madrid Global Portfolio tier includes a subsequent-designation strategy roadmap that maps platform-footprint and revenue data against Madrid member countries.

Each designated country examines the international application under its own laws and can issue a provisional refusal within 12 or 18 months under treaty rules. Refusals split into non-substantive (formal issues like specimen format, identification of goods, or disclaimer) and substantive (likelihood of confusion with prior marks, descriptiveness, genericness, or geographic descriptiveness). Non-substantive refusals are included across every SGL tier. Substantive refusals are included in Madrid Multi-Market (one response) and Madrid Global Portfolio (up to three responses); additional substantive responses are scoped separately at the strategy call. Country-specific refusal rules are codified in Lanham Act §66 for inbound US applications and in each country's national IP statute for outbound.

WIPO typically processes the international application within two to three months of USPTO certification and issues the international registration certificate. Each designated country then has either 12 or 18 months under WIPO treaty rules to issue a provisional refusal or grant protection. Countries that do not issue a refusal within their statutory window grant protection automatically. Total timeline from filing to confirmed protection across all designated countries depends on country mix, class scope, and any refusals encountered. SGL sets case-specific timing expectations during the strategy call.

Madrid filing is one international application administered by WIPO that designates multiple member countries simultaneously through a single procedure. Direct national filing means engaging local counsel in each target country and filing a separate application under that country's national rules. Madrid is more cost-effective when you target three or more Madrid member countries because you pay one set of WIPO fees plus per-country designation fees rather than separate national legal fees in each jurisdiction. Direct national filing is the right move for countries that are not Madrid Protocol members and for single-country filings where the Madrid overhead does not pay back.

Madrid registrations renew every ten years through a single WIPO procedure rather than country-by-country. You pay a renewal basic fee plus per-country designation renewal fees on the same ten-year cycle. The Madrid Global Portfolio tier includes a renewal calendar mapped to your designated countries with timely reminders before each deadline. Subsequent designations added later renew on the same cycle as the original international registration regardless of when they were added, so portfolio management remains centralized.