How to Protect a Trademark Internationally?

Day after day the world becomes smaller as more businesses expand overseas with their products or services. However, this comes with a risk of the unauthorized use of your trademark by others, else known as infringement. This risk increases with the success of your brand and makes the trademark protection worldwide essential. But how can this be achieved? There is not an international patent and trademark office where you can simply apply and register. Nonetheless, there are ways and steps to be followed in order to achieve the trademark protection in a greater area than the country where you register it initially.

First of all, it’s necessary to register the trademark in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Nowadays that can even be done online in their website. This will create you a solid ground in order to help you registering in other countries. Next you have to do some research about the countries where you aim to legally protect your trademark. Look their rules, regulations and how they cooperate with the U.S. system. Certainly, you will find out at some point about the Madrid System which is a coalition of 113 countries including the EU, China, Australia etc. You can choose either specific countries where you want your trademark to be registered, or all of them. There are fees but much lower than it would cost you if you applied in each country individually. The Madrid Agreement however has some countries that are not included, out of which Canada and South Africa are important examples. For individual countries it’s recommended to consider hiring an attorney not just to guarantee success but also to speed up the process which is essential in matters of trademark protection.