The international trademark is registered under a system for international trademark registration. The system is governed by two treaties – the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and the Protocol to the Madrid Agreement. The system is administered by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), based in Geneva, Switzerland. The States which are party to the Agreement or the Protocol shall be called “The Contracting States”. The main purpose of the system is to obtain Trademark protection for goods and/or services in the Contracting States. In this case, one registration of an international trademark corresponds to multiple national registrations of trademarks. The result is only one registration for maintenance and

renewal. This includes all actions related to this registration. Such frequent actions are change of owner, change of name or address of the owner, restriction of the list of goods and/or services, etc.

The application for international registration (or so-called “international trademark application”) may be filed by a natural or legal person with nationality in a country party to the Madrid Agreement or the Protocol. In addition, any person who has an efficient and serious business in such a country can also file. And last but not least is the condition that the person has a permanent residence in it.

A trademark may be the subject of an application for international registration under the Madrid Protocol only if it has been registered with the relevant Office of the Contracting State. Otherwise, the international application is subject exclusively to the Protocol, if its registration has been filed in the Office. The Office of the Contracting State in which these two conditions apply shall be called the “Office of Origin”.

The international application must be sent to the International Bureau through the Office of origin otherwise, the application is returned to the sender. It must contain one reproduction of the mark, which should be

identical to that of the basic application. The list of goods and/or services for which protection is claimed must also be identical. Goods and services are classified according to the International Classification of Goods and Services ( Nice Classification ). The international application must indicate the Contracting Parties in which trademark protection is sought. The peculiarity is that the Contracting Party whose Office is the Office of origin cannot be designated. The international application may be filed in English, French or Spanish.