Intellectual Property Advisory: New Foreign Application Filing Options for U.S. Trademark Owners
9/29/2003
There is good news for U.S. companies filing trademarks internationally: the European Community Trademark registration system will soon include 10 more countries, and the U.S. will shortly adhere to the Madrid Protocol.
In 1996, the European Community Trademark (CTM) registration system was introduced. It provided U.S. trademark owners, for the first time, with the ability to obtain one registration covering all 15 members of the European Union. In May 2004, ten more countries will join the European Union: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Larvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. The protection afforded by the scope of all European Community trademark registrations and applications that are granted or are pending at the time the new member states join the European Union in May 2004 will automatically be extended to those new member states without the need to take any further steps or pay any additional fees.
The United States will begin adhering to the international trademark treaty known as the Madrid Protocol (the "Protocol") beginning on November 2, 2003. The Protocol has been in existence since 1996, and 57 other countries are already participating members. Under the Protocol, a single application can be filed to obtain a single "International Registration" for a single trademark in any or all of the 58 countries that are members of the Protocol.
