Trademark registration guide: WIPO

If your business operates, or plans to operate, across multiple countries, protecting your brand in each market individually can be expensive and administratively difficult. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) offers a practical solution through its Madrid System: a single international application that can cover over 130 member countries simultaneously.

Rather than filing separate applications in each country, paying separate fees, and managing renewals on different schedules, the Madrid System centralises the process. One application, one language, one set of fees, and one renewal date. For businesses with international ambitions, this can save a significant amount of time and money compared to direct national filings.

WIPO administers the Madrid System under the Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol. Here's the core idea: you file a single international application through your home country's intellectual property office (your "Office of Origin"), which forwards it to WIPO. WIPO then reviews the application for formal compliance and, once accepted, records it in the International Register and notifies the trademark offices of all the countries you've designated.

Each designated country's trademark office then has a set period to examine the application under its own national laws and either accept or refuse protection. If a national office raises no objection within that window, protection is automatically granted in that country.

One important feature, and limitation, of the Madrid System is its dependency on your "basic mark." Your international application must be based on a trademark already filed or registered in your home country. If that base application is withdrawn, refused, or cancelled within the first five years of your international registration, all the international protections linked to it fall away as well. This is known as "central attack."

Like most trademark systems, WIPO and its member countries operate on a first-to-file basis. The filing date of your international application is the date that establishes your priority, meaning whoever files first generally has stronger rights, regardless of who actually started using the mark in commerce first.

There is one notable advantage here: if you file your international application within six months of filing your home country ("basic") trademark application, you can claim the earlier filing date as your international priority date. This so-called "priority claim" can be a meaningful strategic tool, allowing you to establish a strong priority date across all designated countries while giving yourself time to assess which markets matter most before committing to the full cost of international registration.

The timeline varies depending on the countries you designate, but here is a general framework:

Overall, you should expect the full process to take anywhere from 1 to 2 years across most designated jurisdictions, assuming no oppositions or office actions arise.

WIPO trademark fees are made up of several components:

As a rough guide, an application covering the EU, the US, the UK, and two or three other markets in one or two classes could cost anywhere from CHF 2,000 to CHF 5,000 or more, depending on the specific countries designated.

You can calculate the exact fees using the on the Madrid System portal.

To file an international trademark application through WIPO, you must have a real and effective connection to a Madrid System member country. Specifically, you must be a national of, be domiciled in, or have a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in a country that is a member of the Madrid Protocol.

The main requirement is that your application must also be based on a trademark already filed or registered in that country.

Unlike some national systems, WIPO does not require applicants to use a local representative when filing the international application itself, though many applicants choose to work with an attorney to avoid costly mistakes. If a designated country raises an objection or office action, however, you will typically need to engage a local attorney in that country to respond.

Before anything else, you need a trademark application or registration in your home country. This becomes the foundation of your international application.

You file the MM2 form (the standard WIPO application form) through your home country's IP office. They verify it meets national requirements and forward it to WIPO.

WIPO checks that the application meets the formal requirements of the Madrid System: correct classification, fees paid, proper representation of the mark, and so on. If everything is in order, WIPO records the trademark in the International Register and publishes it in the WIPO Gazette of International Marks.

Each designated country's trademark office examines the application under its own national laws. They may:

If a national office issues a provisional refusal, you typically have a set period to respond, usually through a local attorney in that country. If you do not respond or the refusal is upheld, protection is denied in that specific country, but your registration in other countries remains unaffected.

Where no refusal is issued, or where a refusal is successfully overcome, protection takes effect in that country as of your international filing date.

Once your international registration is published in the WIPO Gazette, third parties in each designated country may have the opportunity to oppose it, in line with that country's national opposition procedures and timelines.

An opposition is a formal objection filed by the owner of a conflicting earlier trademark. The process, timelines, and grounds for opposition vary significantly by country. In the EU, for example, there is a three-month opposition window after publication.

Critically, a successful opposition in one country does not affect your protection in other designated countries. Unlike a central attack (which can collapse your entire registration), an opposition only impacts the specific jurisdiction where it is filed.

If your application is opposed, you will generally need to engage a local attorney in the relevant country to represent you in the opposition proceedings. The outcome depends on the strength of the opposing mark, the similarity of the goods and services, and the arguments made by both sides.

The Madrid System is a powerful tool for international trademark protection, but it comes with several important limitations: 

For the first five years, your international registration is directly dependent on that basic mark. If the basic mark is withdrawn, refused, or cancelled for any reason during that period all the international protections linked to it collapse automatically. 

There is a partial safety net: if central attack occurs, you can convert your international registration into individual national applications while keeping your original priority date. However, this transformation process takes time, costs money, and adds administrative burden at exactly the moment you least want it.

Your international registration cannot cover a broader list of goods and services than your basic mark. If your home country trademark was filed with a narrow or imprecise classification, that limitation carries through to every country you designate through WIPO. You cannot use the international application to "expand" your protection beyond what was granted at home. 

WIPO handles the administrative side of your application, but it does not get involved when individual countries raise objections. If any individual country raises an objection, you will need to find and engage a local attorney in that jurisdiction yourself. 

The United States is a case in point: every WIPO application designating the US is met with an office action from the USPTO, as it is the office's policy to require foreign applicants to be represented by a US-licensed attorney. For applicants targeting many countries, this can mean sourcing and coordinating multiple local attorneys across different legal systems, languages, and timelines. 

An international trademark registration is valid for 10 years from the date of international registration. It can be renewed indefinitely in 10-year increments.

One of the practical advantages of the Madrid System is that all designated countries share a single renewal date, regardless of when each country's protection was individually confirmed. This makes portfolio management considerably simpler than maintaining separate national registrations with different renewal deadlines.

Renewal can be requested up to 6 months before the expiry date. If the deadline is missed, there is a 6-month grace period during which renewal is still possible, though a surcharge applies.

Renewal fees follow the same structure as the initial filing fees: a basic WIPO fee (CHF 653) plus country-specific fees for each designation you wish to maintain. You can drop individual country designations at renewal if they are no longer commercially relevant.

The best approach depends on how many markets you need, where they are, and the nature of your business. Here's a quick breakdown:

WIPO (Madrid System) is well suited for businesses targeting five or more countries, particularly if those countries are all Madrid System members. The cost and administrative savings are most significant when you're covering a broad range of markets. That said, the system has real limitations: your registration is tied to your basic mark for the first five years, the classification options can be restrictive, and any objections in individual countries require local legal support that you'll need to source yourself.

Direct national filing gives you maximum flexibility and independence. Each application stands on its own, you can tailor the goods and services description precisely for each market, and there is no central attack risk. The trade-off is cost and complexity: direct filing across multiple countries quickly becomes expensive and administratively demanding.

Trama combines the strengths of both approaches and removes the guesswork. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all strategy, Trama analyses your target markets and business needs to determine the optimal mix of WIPO filings and direct national applications. Where WIPO makes sense, we use it. Where direct filing offers better protection or covers markets outside the Madrid System, we file directly. And if you face objections or oppositions anywhere in the world, our network of local attorneys is on hand to respond, without you having to source representation yourself.

In short: WIPO is a powerful tool, but it works best as part of a broader, tailored strategy. That's exactly what Trama delivers.