Brazil has begun streamlining procedures to finally join the Madrid Protocol, an international agreement administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which would facilitate the protection of global brands of Brazilian companies and would also help in exporting. Although the Protocol, which is currently valid in 98 countries, like the Unities States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China, went into force back in 1991, the Brazilian government has been evaluating whether to participate in this Agreement since 2001.

The Madrid Protocol allows trademark owners to seek multi-jurisdictional protection of trademarks through a single application, thus reducing costs and bureaucracy. Specifically, the Protocol allows the filing of an application for trademark registration simultaneously in the various registration offices of the member countries of the Agreement all over the world, or the extension of a national application into an international application, to which various member state countries may be added when of interest.

The text of the Madrid Protocol has recently been signed by Mr. Marcos Pereira, Brazilian Minister of Foreign Trade Industry and Services, and Brazil’s accession to the Agreement now awaits the ratification of the Brazilian Congress, which is due next year. If ratified by the Government, it is expected that Brazil could join the Protocol by mid-2018.

The Madrid Protocol would not only provide numerous benefits for Brazilian companies, but could also be bring advantages to foreign companies that export or intend to export to the country. Currently, the process of trademark registration in Brazil takes about 30 months, whereas with the protocol, not only the time, but also the cost of trademark registration would be significantly decreased.

Source