India enters international trademark system
India has entered the Madrid Protocol for the International Registration of Marks at the World Intellectual Property Organization. India is the fourth fastest growing economy in the world, the second most populous with 1.2 billion people, and the fourth economy in terms of purchasing power.
The Madrid system will offer Indian enterprises and traders greater possibility of internationalising the increasing volume of domestic trademark applications.
The accession indicates India’s greater engagement with the global IP community. ”It is also an endorsement of multilateralism, and this at a time when many other solutions are being tried and tested, but when nevertheless we have an increasing globalised marketplace which requires global rules and global support systems for that marketplace”, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry, stated.
The Madrid system is an important part of the world trademark system and has been undergoing a significant expansion in the last 12 months, with Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand and the Philippines acceding to the instrument. India is the 90th member of the system.