WIPO Lauches Madrid Union Newsletter

A free quarterly publication on the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and to the Protocol relating to that Agreement, that the International Bureau is making available on-line here, where you can also subscribe to future issues. Here are a few statistics from the inaugural issue.

The largest number of international applications filed in 2003 came from users in Germany (4,999 or 22.9%), France (3,281 or 15%), Switzerland (2,204 or 10.1%) and the Benelux (2,104 or 9.6%). The top twenty users of the Madrid System in
2003 were: Henkel, Sanofi, Unilever, Janssen Pharmaceutica, L?Oréal, Nestlé, Bayer, Novartis, Siemens, ITM, Boehringer, Biofarma, Philips Electronics, BASF, Novartis, Merck, Syngenta, Fiat, Kodak and Bongrain. Moreover the Madrid System is also widely used by SMEs. Among the owners of the trademarks that are internationally registered, more than 90% own less than
10 such registrations.

Data concerning all international registrations currently in force, as well as international applications and subsequent designations received but not yet recorded, are also made available for searching in electronic form on the Internet through the Madrid Express database in WIPO's Industrial Property Digital Library (IPDL) Madrid Express is updated daily.

Click here for a list of Contracting Parties to the Madrid Union.