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Joining the Madrid system

The annual data on international applications for trademarks registration, released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), show the kind of importance China has acquired in the global market. At the same time, they have lessons for India, which is acting slowly on its declared intention to join the Madrid System of filing international applications for registration of trademarks and service marks in various countries through a single agency. During 2005, China emerged at the top of the ranking in terms of "designation" by foreign applicants for trademarks, edging out Switzerland and the Russian Federation. It has also become the largest applicant, among developing countries, for foreign registration of its own trademarks. The meaning of all this is that, on the one hand, more and more businesses in leading economies that set store by their brands seek a market share in China, by `designating' it in their applications. On the other hand, Chinese entrepreneurs and enterprises are increasingly realising the value brands bring to them and hence seek to register trademarks and service marks in other counties.

It cannot be disputed that it is the large and multinational corporations that are way ahead of others in terms of ownership of popular brands. There are MNCs in various sectors of production, especially consumer goods, that own hundreds of brands. However, it will be wrong to conclude that multilateral trade treaties and arrangements like the Madrid System for the registration of trademarks benefit only big businesses. On the contrary, more than 80 per cent of users of the system are small businesses that own up to two trademarks and 96 per cent up to 10 trademarks. This is not surprising, considering that the Madrid System (similar to the Patent Cooperation Treaty or PCT in the case of patents) offers a simple and low-cost alternative to filing applications for registration (or renewal) of trademarks in the intellectual property (IP) offices of many countries separately. India has said that it would join the Madrid System after making due preparations, including modernisation of its trademark offices. Investment and action in this direction should be expedited and Indian providers of goods and services enabled to take advantage of the system without further delay. It also needs to be noted that the Madrid System does not prevent trademark owners from routing their application through the IP offices of member-countries other than their own. If India does not accede to the system early, Indian businesses may be forced to put in their international applications from the IP offices of third countries by setting up minimal operations prescribed for this purpose.

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